Gladiator 2 is supposed to be set 25 years later after the original and focus on Lucius, the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s Gladiator villain, Commodus. Fans may remember Lucius Vercus played by the child actor Spencer Trea Clark in the original film. As it turns out, Connie Nielsen will still play Commodus’ mother, who happens to be the only confirmed casting along with Djimon Hounsou who will be returning to play a slave. The rumors for a sequel to Gladiator have been circulating around since 2017, however, in all these years I think today might be the most concrete update that we will receive about the movie.
The official announcement regarding the project’s existence came in 2018, where it was revealed that Ridley Scott would return in the director’s chair and the sequel would be penned down by Peter Craig. Apart from this nothing about the film was revealed. Ridley Scott and company are in the middle of putting a cast together for the sequel. The sequel is still looking for key actors to fill in important roles. The sequel is rumored to start filming around May 2023, so the creative team has about five months to put together their ensemble and it looks like they’ve already filled the most important role.
Paul Mescal Will Lead Gladiator 2, Which Actors Got Rejected?
Deadline revealed that the lead for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel has been decided and it is Normal People’s Paul Mescal. The actor is supposed to play Russell Crowe’s Roman general turned Gladiator Maximus. The sequel will take place after the death of Maximus and Mescal will play the grown-up Lucius Verus – whose thirteen-year-old counterpart was played by Spencer Treat Clark. Just after this announcement, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that there were many actors in contention for the role apart from Mescal.
Other stars that were in pursuit for the role, in a tedious process that included meetings and auditions were some of Hollywood’s biggest names like Bodyguard, Game of Thrones and Eternals’ star Richard Madden, Top Gun: Maverick’s Miles Teller, Elvis and Dune: Part Two’s Austin Butler the star of the Dune franchise – Timothee Chalamet. Scott was ready with Gladiator 2 final draft in November 2022 which resulted in an array of meetings for the role starting with Mescal. However, Scott continued to meet other actors, including Madden.
Justin Kroll who was writer behind Deadline’s breakout report clarified that Butler never met Scott as he is planning to take a break from acting after shooting three films back to back, including Dune: Part Two. The decision at the end was between Chalamet, Mescal and Teller. Mescal emerged as the winner because Scott wanted an actor who was not a huge movie star yet and the other two candidates clearly were. Madden was reportedly rejected immediately unlike Chalamet and Teller who didn’t get the part because of Scott’s above mentioned condition.
The Gladiator sequel should ideally release in late December 2024. This release date would make sense as that would allow the film to be in the awards season conversation while enjoying the holiday boosted box office collections. The only problem with this is that James Cameron’s Avatar threequel is slated to release in December 2024 as well. I don’t think so Scott or Cameron would want to clash horns with each other. The sequel would face huge losses if it releases alongside Avatar 3 seeing how Avatar: The Way of Water has demolished all competition this year. I think, an early 2025 release date seems better for Gladiator 2.
Gladiator is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
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