Gladiator 2 swept into the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, where theater owners were given the first look at footage from Ridley Scott‘s epic.
Scott sent in a video from London to introduce the piece. “It is possibly even more extraordinary than the first,” said Scott of the upcoming film, a sequel to 2000’s Gladiator. Star Paul Mescal called working on it a “standout moment” in his life to date. Denzel Washington said the film will have “emotion” and “spectacle ” beyond anything else in theaters this year.
In the footage, Mescal is revealed to be a gladiator (apparently, he is not playing the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s Emperor Commodus, as had been reported). His character is seen fighting murderous monkeys, as well as a soldier on a rhinoceros. At one point, the Colosseum is filled with water for an epic ship battle.
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The first Gladiator won Russell Crowe a best actor Oscar, and told the story of a Roman general sold into slavery and forced to fight as a gladiator, all while turning his growing popularity with the people against the murderous Commodus.
It seems that Mescal’s character is inspired by Crowe’s Maximus. “I remember that day. I never forgot it. That a slave could take revenge against an emperor. That a slave could get justice in the arena,” he says at one point in the trailer, referencing the climax of the first film.
The project dives into anti-war politics, with Pedro Pascal playing a military figure who no longer wants to throw away Rome’s young men on war. As a result, he too is then condemned to fight as a gladiator. Washington, meanwhile, seems to be guiding Mescal to inspire revolution.
“The only truth in Rome is the law of the strongest,” says Washington’s character.
Going into CinemaCon, Gladiator 2 was among the most anticipated movies, given its pedigree as the sequel to Scott’s 2000 best picture winner, and given reports of a large budget that would suggest plenty of spectacle onscreen for the Nov. 22 release.
Gladiator 2 is a risky proposition for Paramount and for Scott, who takes big swings with his movies that sometimes generate hits and classic films, and sometimes don’t. His 2023 Apple epic Napoleon grossed $221 million globally, which would be a concerning number for a legacy studio, though the tech giant was not counting on it as a theatrical play. For its part, Paramount is high on Scott and has enlisted him to direct an upcoming Bee Gees biopic.
In his video remarks introducing the footage, Scott noted it’d been more than 20 years since the first film hit theaters. Said the legendary filmmaker: “Well worth the wait.”
