Posted in: Movies, Paramount Pictures, Universal | Tagged: film, Gladiator, Gladiator 2, paul mescal, ridley scott, universal

Ridley Scott Says Gladiator 2 Currently Requires Another 90 Minutes

Director Ridley Scott is updating fans on the status of Gladiator 2 and revealing why he returned to direct a sequel to the popular film.

It's been more than 20 years since the release of the game-changing film Gladiator, which earned more than $500 million at the time of its release. Little did audiences know, the popular (and tragic) film would eventually earn itself a sequel decades later, with the return of the influential director responsible for its success in the first place.

Now, with the strike finally coming to a close, we're finally getting an update on the current progress of Gladiator 2, along with the primary reason the filmmaker chose to make a return to the story he initially created back in 2000.

Ridley Scott Talks Gladiator 2 Production and Returning for a Sequel

During a recent chat with Deadline, renowned director Ridley Scott was asked about the status of Gladiator 2, and he made it known that it should be resuming very soon. Scott explains, "[In a] couple weeks. Thank God [the strike] is over. We shot about 90 minutes, at least that's finished. It's really getting the sets cleaned up; they're already built. I got another 90 minutes to go."

When later asked why he returned to direct the Gladiator sequel, he divulges, "Well, economically, it makes sense. That always begins there. I thought the [first] film was, as it were, completely satisfactory, creatively complete, so why muck with it, right? But these cycles keeps going on and on and on; they repeat globally for the last 20 years. It started to spell itself out as an obvious thing to do, and that's how it evolved. The hardest thing is getting the footprint right with the writer. There was a very obvious way to go, which was, who's the survivor? Well, the survivor could be Connie, Marcus' daughter, but what's even more interesting, and therefore a double whammy, there's the son. Whatever happened to him? It became about that, and that's Paul Mescal. It's 20 years on. That was harder than casting Russell as Maximus; that was more obvious."

Gladiator 2 will resume filming soon, so it should still be on track for its planned theatrical release on November 22, 2024. Are you excited about the Scott-helmed sequel film?

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