Gladiator II Trailer Looks Familiar

Movies

Grab your sword and sandals because Ridley Scott is taking you back to Rome. Today, Paramount released a trailer for Gladiator II, the long-gestating sequel to the 2000 semi-historical epic that won Best Picture and Best Actor at the Academy Awards. Set over twenty years after the original, Gladiator II follows Lucius Verus, Commodus’ nephew and heir to the Roman Empire, who, for some reason, now lives in a small town with his wife and child. Lucius is captured by the Roman army and turned into a gladiator because that’s the title of the movie; Colosseum battles ensue. Paul Mescal stars as Lucius, with Connie Nielsen returning as his mother, Lucilla. Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Derek Jacobi, Joseph Quinn, and Fred Hechinger have supporting roles. Directed by Ridley Scott, Gladiator II will arrive in theaters on November 22, 2024, and you can see the trailer below:

There’s a reason this trailer focuses so much on Denzel Washington. It’s a sequel nobody really wanted that doesn’t have the main character or actor from the original and stars an unknown actor, so they’re making sure everyone knows one of the most popular movie stars on Earth is in it. And while the trailer doesn’t look bad in a vacuum – it’s still Ridley Scott directing, so it unsurprisingly looks good visually – it doesn’t do much to justify the existence of a Gladiator sequel. Based on what we see, it’s essentially the same story: a guy is captured, turned into a slave, and then forced to be a gladiator while he seeks revenge against a Roman official. They even show Lucius rallying the other gladiators like Maximus did, and those twin emperors look and act conspicuously similar to Commodus. Why tell the same story with different characters in a sequel? I doubt it’ll be as compelling as Gladiator, especially without Russell Crowe. Ridley Scott has tried to get this made for a long time, and I have no idea why. I guess we’ll find out if it was worth all the effort this fall.