The following contains minor spoilers for Gladiator II.
The fact that a sequel to Gladiator got made nearly a quarter century after the first film is a testament to the fact that this was clearly a movie that audiences wanted to see. Gladiator II’s solid box office shows that there are a lot of people who wanted to see this story, but apparently there’s actually a lot of Gladiator II that we have yet to see.
Gladiator II producers Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher recently spoke with THR about what was cut from the film to get the movie down to a significant length for a theatrical release. At two and a half hours in length, Gladiator II is pushing the limits of what’s considered viable for a theatrical release, so a lot had to be trimmed, including a scene with Connie Nielsen and Pedro Pascal that sounds like it would have been amazing. Wick explained…
Yeah, very clearly. Even as we are, we’re a long movie. So, yeah, very simply, it can’t be longer, and you have to see what works and what’s essential. Connie had a wonderful [deleted] scene where she basically said goodbye to [Pedro’s character’s] corpse, so you just always have to make choices about what’s essential.
Pedro Pascal’s General Acacius dies in the Colosseum following a battle with Paul Mescal’s Lucius. The event is a turning point for both Mescal’s character and Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla. A farewell scene between the couple would have put some closure on the character and the relationship. From the sound of it, even the producer wishes the scene was still there, but some sacrifices needed to be made.
This scene with Nielsen certainly wasn’t the only thing lost when cuts had to be made to Gladiator II. Actress May Calamawy was set to be in the Gladiator II cast, but anybody who has seen the film can tell you she’s not in the final cut. It appears that, like this other scene, her entire character was cut from the film to trim down the story.
Apparently Ridley Scott’s first cut of Gladiator II was more than an hour longer than the final version we got, and that’s simply a non-starter. We rarely see movies that are three hours or longer and that’s in large part due to theaters having to limit the number of showings a movie can have in a day if the runtime is too long.
Considering how much of Gladiator II had to be cut, hopefully we'll see it all in a Director’s Cut of Gladiator II. Ridley Scott certainly hasn’t been against such things, and he's indicated a Director's Cut of Gladiator II will likely happen. His additional cuts of both Blade Runner and Kingdom of Heaven are generally considered to be superior to their theatrical versions. Perhaps the same will happen with Gladiator II.
Scott has called Gladiator II some of his best work, and while the movie is generally well-regarded, it's not necessarily seen at quite that level. Maybe that's because we haven't seen all of it yet.
