Gladiator was a huge hit in its day. It was that rare film that was both a massive blockbuster, bringing in $465 million worldwide in 2000, and an awards darling, winning multiple Oscars including Best Actor and Best Picture. It’s the sort of film that even a quarter century ago, any studio would have been looking to make a sequel quickly in an attempt to recreate that success. So why are we only getting Gladiator II just now?
Ridley Scott’s simple answer to the question when asked by EW is that the idea of making a sequel to Gladiator simply never came up at the time, because everybody just moved on to other projects. Once everybody was working on other things, Gladiator moved into the background. Scott said…
Frankly, we were all busy. So, honestly, no one really thought about it.
It’s maybe not that surprising that nobody was thinking of a Gladiator sequel right off the bat. Russell Crowe's best movies were all coming out in this period and following Gladiator, he was in very high demand. The film would mark the second of three consecutive Best Actor Oscar nominations for the star. Ridley Scott would release two movies he directed the year after Gladiator, including the equally impressive Black Hawk Down.
While Gladiator II certainly isn’t the only sequel to make its way to theaters decades after a previous installment, it’s perhaps a somewhat surprising film to get an update now. It feels like the sort of movie that would have gotten a sequel quickly or not at all. However, Ridley Scott says that it was watching the original Gladiator continue to be popular over time that led him to decide that he owed it to "the number one to find out about a number two.
Of course, Russell Crowe’s character Maximus had died by the end of the first movie, so any sequel would need to contend with that. There were some ideas for Gladiator II when the project was first being considered that would have found a way to bring Maximus back, but none of that ever seemed to get very far off the ground. Instead, the new film will be set decades later and see Paul Mescal as an adult Lucius, a character who was a child in the first film.
In the end, it seems like the delay of more than two decades between Gladiator movies was the right call. Ridley Scott is calling the sequel some of his best work, which is a pretty bold statement in and of itself. Audiences will find out how true that is when the movie hits theaters next month, but the early buzz for Gladiator II has certainly been strong. Perhaps Gladiator II will ultimately be as successful, both with box office dollars and awards, as its predecessor.
