More than two decades on, Ridley Scott’s seminal, best picture-winning action epic Gladiator is getting a sequel—and, by all accounts, it’s going to be a corker. Starring a hulking Paul Mescal, now a world away from Normal People’s sensitive Connell Waldron, as Lucius, the son of Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla and the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus, it’ll see our magnetic lead step into the arena and fight to the death.
Per Vanity Fair, the new film will pick up decades after the first, with Lucius having “come of age far away from his mother. While he was still a child, Lucilla sent him to the northern coast of Africa, to a region called Numidia that was (at that point) just outside the reach of the Roman Empire. He never fully understood why, and as he grew stronger, so did his resentment—even if his mother’s reasons had been pure… As Gladiator II begins, Lucius has a wife and child, and lives a relatively peaceful life with them until conquerors from his homeland begin to encroach.”
Among those leading the charge is Pedro Pascal’s Marcus Acacius, a Roman general who is a ruthless killer and, to Lucius, “a symbol of everything he detests.” The film reportedly opens with the raiding party of the Roman fleet decimating Numidia, after which Lucius is taken prisoner. “When he gets to Rome… and has a first round in the arena, he sees his mother—to his shock,” Scott revealed to the publication. “He doesn’t know whether she’s alive or not. How would he know? You don’t have telephones. There’s no press. And there’s his mother in the royal box looking pretty good after 20 years. And she’s with the general who he came face-to-face with on the wall in Numidia.” When he enters the Colosseum, Lucilla doesn’t recognize her son, but it’s not long before he and her lover come to blows.
Nielsen, who reprises her role from the original film, is also joined in Gladiator II by Denzel Washington as the dashing, prosperous arms dealer Macrinus, who keeps a stable of gladiators for sport; Stranger Things breakout Joseph Quinn as the cruel Emperor Geta; and Fred Hechinger as his twin brother and equally sadistic co-ruler, Emperor Caracalla. Mark your calendars for November 22, when the blockbuster lands in theatres – and watch the barnstorming first trailer in full, below.
