Gladiator director Ridley Scott has asserted his enthusiasm for bringing the long, long awaited (and largely unexpected) sequel to the big screen, saying it would be “critically stupid” of him not to make Gladiator 2 happen. Asked recently whether he could see himself helming the follow-up, Scott questioned the idea of passing up on the opportunity to continue the legacy of his epic historical drama.
“How could I not do that? It would be critically stupid of me not to do that, wouldn’t it?”
Scott’s clear eagerness for Gladiator 2 is sure to excited those who have wondered for all these years whether the proposed project would ever come to fruition. The first Gladiator, which has since become an iconic slice of sword-and-sandals cinema, centers on Russell Crowe as Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, who is betrayed when Commodus, the ambitious son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, murders his father and seizes the throne. Reduced to slavery, Maximus is forced to become a gladiator, and quickly rises through the ranks of the arena to avenge the murders of his family and his emperor.
Gladiator 2 has been the subject of much speculation over for years, and with the first movie earning over $400 million worldwide, as well as being nominated for 11 Oscars, winning for Best Picture and Best Actor, it’s no wonder than the idea of a sequel has endured for so long. Scott’s enthusiasm to finally get the movie going suggests that he has now found a way to get over Gladiator 2‘s biggest hurdle, the death of Maximus, which, according to producer Doug Wick, is the reason for the delay. “Like any good movie, Gladiator works by the skin of its teeth, where this fight movie ends up adding up that way, and so, again, to take the best of what the audience is attached to, but make it fresh in some new incarnation, it’s really challenging,” Wick said last year. “And, of course, the leading man is dead. If you do Godfather, you say, ‘Okay, the audience loves these stars in this wardrobe,’ and you bring back the old team.”
While plot details remain a closely guarded secret, rumors have claimed that Thor: Love and Thunder star Chris Hemsworth could lead Gladiator 2 as Maximus’ son. “Russell thinks he could be the only man to credibly play his son in a Gladiator sequel,” explained the source, with the same insider further claiming that both Crowe and Hemsworth, who will unite for the Thor sequel, are “carefully considering the concept” for Gladiator 2 and have “spent hours musing over script ideas.”
This creates some issues of its own, with Maximus’ only known son also tragically dead, but creating an illegitimate one, perhaps as the offspring of Maximus and Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla, would not be too hard a sell. In any case, Ridley Scott must have found a way to continue to tale of Maximus, with the director revealing that he has already written the script, and hopes to begin production following the release of his Napoleon Bonaparte movie, Kitbag. “I’m already having [the next] Gladiator written now. So when I’ve done Napoleon, Gladiator will be ready to go,” Scott stated back in September. This comes to us from The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show.
Source: movieweb.com