The crowd is chanting. The dual emperors of Rome are thirsty for blood. Step back into the coliseum, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for glorious combat.
After a bunch of teaser images and previews have been released over the past few weeks, the first trailer for Gladiator II is out this morning and it’s absolutely stunning. I have not been this hyped for a movie about Rome since the first trailer for the original Gladiator dropped nearly 25 years ago. (I’ve actually purchased that film in 4K Blu-ray format to watch again for the first time in years before the sequel comes out).
The sequel to Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix’s epic historical drama picks up years after the first movie, and follows Lucius (Paul Mescal) the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and nephew to the first film’s villain, Commodus (Phoenix).
Lucius was a boy in that film, played by Spencer Treat Clark. His mother shipped him off to Africa and out of Rome’s clutches, but he has returned in the sequel as a gladiator where he meets the powerful and scheming Macrinus (Denzel Washington) and General Marcus Acacius, who once served under General Maximus (Crowe).
Here’s the trailer:
This looks every bit as epic and grand as the first film, with an even more star-studded cast. Mescal, a young Irish actor, is the least well-known among the leads but director Ridley Scott became a fan of his after watching Normal People. Apparently the two only spoke for half an hour before Scott decided to cast him. Mescal also starred in Aftersun, which received rave reviews and just recently landed on Netflix.
According to an interview with Vanity Fair, Pascal found the battles in the movie a challenge to film. “It’s brutal, man. I call him Brick Wall Paul,” he said of his co-star. “He got so strong. I would rather be thrown from a building than have to fight him again. To go up against somebody that fit and that talented and that much younger…. Outside of Ridley being a total genius, Paul is a big reason as to why I would put my poor body through that experience.”
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