Ridley Scott had talked about making a sequel to his Oscar-winning hit Gladiator for years, and fans had the same question the entire time. How will that work if Russell Crowe’s hero Maximus is dead? It turns out, that even Crowe himself has questions about the movie, and he admits he’s “uncomfortable” with the fact they’re making a sequel, both because he doesn’t get to be in it, and because he has concerns about the story of Gladiator 2.
Russell Crowe appeared on the Kyle Meredith With… podcast, primarily to talk about his second career as a musician, but a conversation about playing shows in Italy led to a tangent regarding one of the best films of the 2000s, Gladiator, and its forthcoming sequel. Crowe has nothing but good things to say about his time playing Maximus, but he admits he doesn’t love that a sequel is coming because he’s heard things about the movie that don’t sit right with him. He explained…
I’m slightly uncomfortable with the fact they’re making another one — because, of course, I’m dead and I have no say in what gets done. But a couple of the things that I’ve heard I’m like — no, no, no, that’s not in the moral journey of that particular character. But I can’t say anything, it’s not my place, I’m six foot under. So we’ll see what that is like.
Crowe doesn’t go into detail regarding which character he takes issue with. Based on what we know about Gladiator 2’s story, we can guess he’s probably talking about Lucius Verus, a child in the first movie who will be all grown up and the sequel's main character. However, there are also a couple of actors in the Gladiator 2 cast who are reprising their roles from the original movie so it’s possible, though less likely he could be talking about Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla or Darek Jacobi’s Gracchus
Whatever is happening with the character arc in Gladiator 2, the fact that Crowe feels so strongly about it shows just how important the story and the characters are to him. Crowe admits there is some jealousy from the fact that he’s not part of the new film, maybe because an earlier version of Gladiator 2 would have brought Crowe's character back. But even he admits that just because he may not be on screen, doesn’t mean Maximus won’t have a role. Crowe continued…
There’s definitely a tinge, and this is just being purely honest, a tinge of melancholy, a tinge of jealousy. Because I remember a life when I had tendons (laughs). I was actually going to make a gag ‘It’s hard to be a mentor when you’re dead,’ but that’s not necessarily true. It depends on how strong your legacy is.
If the legacy of the first Gladiator is strong, that could mean very good things for Gladiator 2. The original film was a rare project that was both a box office smash and a major awards winner. Gladiator 2 will open in November and almost certainly try to follow the lead of the original movie in both ways.
