When the first Gladiator film came out, in May 2000, Tony Blair was prime minister. Is it a coincidence that the second Gladiator movie is being released in November, mere months into a new Labour term?
Er, yes. But 24 years is a slog of a time to wait for a sequel. Not quite the 64-year record held by Bambi II, trotting slowly on the heels of Bambi in 2006, but a stretch nevertheless. People who were not even parents when Russell Crowe sought vengeance in this life or the next might be grandparents by now, and as the trailer for Gladiator II is finally released, that same question remains: “Are you not entertained?”
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Well, are you? I am. Gladiator II — from the couple of minutes released today — looks exactly like Gladiator, albeit with boats. The similarity is hardly a surprise. Ridley Scott returns as director and over the decades, the 86-year-old has lost none of his sense of scale and ambition. Indeed, with rhinos, a flooded Colosseum, buckets of blood and the storming of a very fortified wall, it feels as if Scott devoured Game of Thrones during lockdown and thought, “That — but on the big screen.”
The scale, though, is truly only half the appeal here. The story centres on Lucius, who in the first film was the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and nephew to Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix).
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Lucius liked Crowe’s Maximus — who is dead, sadly — and disliked Commodus and the Roman Empire in general. After the events of the first film, Lucius lived a peaceful life with his wife and children but, most excitingly, has only gone and turned into Paul Mescal. Lucky wife. The trailer begins with the actor topless. Films used to create memories. Now they create memes.
Still, you cannot blame the Gladiator II lot. They understand the lure of Mescal and, specifically, the internet and throughout the footage, the new Lucius is shown snarling, fighting, weeping, laughing and getting the best of a huge rhinoceros. Mescal is famous, thanks to Normal People, his Oscar nomination for Aftersun and the excellent All of Us Strangers. But this film will do for him what the first did for Crowe. By December he will be a bona fide A-list star.
“I don’t know what the difference will be,” he told me back in January, about what impact he thought Gladiator II will have on his life. “Maybe that’s naive? Is it just that more people will stop you in the street? I’d get profoundly depressed if that’s so and hope it isn’t true.”
Better get used to being stopped, Paul. Also in Gladiator II, although already used to superstardom, is the ever-watchable Denzel Washington, having a lot of fun as Macrinus, who appears to be some type of gladiator wrangler.
Nielsen is back too although the trailer does not focus on her — more a lot of angry men. Talking of which, The Last of Us’s Pedro Pascal is Marcus Acacius, a Roman general who Mescal’s Lucius does not seem to get on with one bit. Swords are clashed and sandals are worn.
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The director needs a hit after last year’s Napoleon failed to set the box office on fire and this, surely, will mean guaranteed cash. Just don’t go for the history.
Last year, when discussing Napoleon, Scott told me, “When I have issues with historians, I ask: ‘Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the f*** up then.’ ” And Gladiator II will probably push Mary Beard to her limit.
Never mind. As with the first film, just go to be entertained.
Gladiator II is released on November 15
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