Ridley Scott Reveals Why He Finally Made ‘Gladiator 2’

Gladiator 2 has been on Ridley Scott’s thoughts for a very long time. But why make a sequel to a self-contained historic epic a few character who dies on the finish of the primary movie? That’s the large query.

Now some 20 years later, Scott is lastly making the movie. Production was already underway when the actors’ strike started; now that the strike is concluded, Scott is on the brink of get again to work and end the roughly 90 minutes of the film nonetheless left to movie. He spoke with Deadline to debate the primary Gladiator film, and revealed the explanation he did resolve to finally make the sequel and it was … what you may anticipate:

Well, economically, it is smart. That at all times begins there. I believed the [first] movie was, because it have been, fully passable, creatively full, so why muck with it, proper? But these cycles retains occurring and on and on, they repeat globally for the final 20 years. It began to spell itself out as an apparent factor to do, and that’s the way it advanced.

 

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Scott added that the toughest a part of the film was “getting the footprint right with the writer. There was a very obvious way to go, which was who’s the survivor? Well, the survivor could be Connie, Marcus’ daughter, but what’s even more interesting, and therefore a double whammy, there’s the son. Whatever happened to him?”

He additionally famous that casting the son of Maximus, the character performed within the unique movie by Russell Crowe, was even tougher than discovering Crowe the primary time round. The position finally went to actor Paul Mescal. As to why he landed the position, Scott defined…

I’m at all times on the lookout for somebody, one thing new and contemporary. I imply, contemporary is extremely necessary. So they’re not carrying … baggage is a horrible phrase for what they’ve finished earlier than, as a result of it’s nice stuff, however you’ll bear in mind he simply did this character already. I watched this present referred to as Normal People. It’s uncommon for me, however I noticed one and thought, that’s attention-grabbing … So this got here up at a time once I want a 23 12 months outdated, 24 12 months outdated to take up the mantle of Lucius. And I simply mentioned, you need to do it? He mentioned, yeah.

Gladiator 2 is at present scheduled to open in theaters on November 22, 2024.