Gladiator II
Summary
Director Ridley Scott details the original raging plan forGladiator 2 , which would have see Russell Crowe return as Maximus . A sequel to the Best Picture winner from 2000,Gladiator 2follows the Oscar - appoint Paul Mescal as an older Lucius and is localize for a release on November 22 , 2024 . However , year prior , there was a former variant of the playscript written by Nick Cave , which would have seen Maximus upraise and allowed Crowe to render as the fictitious character .
Nick Cave wrote the hand , but I had the idea . I knew how to bring him back through a portal , back to the literal world . I ’m not move tell you what it is , because somebody will steal it … I talk to Nick every other sidereal day for about a calendar month as he was writing it . And so I pronounce , " We can bring him back this way . " And what I want to do is protrude the photographic film in Styx , on the edge of the ocean , and you see him , this warrior , wandering in armor . Then , it ’s Maximus wandering , looking for where he ’s go to go next . That ’s Scene One .
The Original Gladiator 2 Plan Explained
The originalGladiator 2script was written by Cave during the mid-2000s and , as Scott details , featured Maximus being resurrected during the possibility scene . Various versions of the script also saw Maximus awakening in Elysium , the Roman Catholic eq of Purgatory . He is ram to campaign his way out of the infernal kingdom by defeating Hephaestus , and he eventually returns to Rome .
In Rome , Maximus discover that their Modern Emperor , Lucius , has become just as virtuously tainted and power - hungry as his uncle Commodus ( Joaquin Phoenix ) was . Lucius becoming Emperor could be one plot level kept in theGladiator 2scriptwritten by David Scarpa , though it remain to be understand precisely how Mescal ’s character is portrayed . However , it ’s clear that the upcoming sequel is head in a in spades unlike direction than Cave ’s script .
Related : Gladiator 2 ’s New Story Is So Much Better Than Its Silly Maximus Plan
moreover , the original script saw Maximus fighting throughout different periods of history , include the Crusades , World War II , and the Vietnam War before work at the Pentagon in the present solar day . The resurrection of Maximus and the subsequent time - traveling plot of land would have been a significant tonal shift for the subsequence , since the originalGladiatorwas more of a ground diachronic drama . Although much about Scarpa’sGladiator 2script remain unknown , it already is likely a more ordered narrative focused on Lucius .
reference : ReelBlend Podcast
