Gladiator II Getting Bombed By Fans Over Denzel Washington

Paramount is producing and distributing Gladiator II more than 20 years after the first film hit theaters. Paramount recently released its first trailer for the gladiatorial feast, but it runs for three minutes. Many say that’s too long, and it gives away too much of the plot. Many also say Denzel Washington’s role as the new heel-in-chief sounds too much like a native New Yorker pretending to be a Roman power broker. 

Denzel Washington plays Macrinus, who owns and runs a ludus with a strong stable of gladiators. It’s a role that enables Washington to play one of his darker film characters, much like when he portrayed the fictional Det. Alonzo Harris in the 2001 hit film Training Day. The three-minute trailer for the film has generated more than 279,000 dislikes against more than 133,000 likes as of July 12. 

Those numbers certainly have changed in the days since, but the strong opposition to what people have seen in the first trailer released for Gladiator II doesn’t bode well for the film. Hopefully, audiences will keep an open mind when buying tickets and not let social media sour their expectations of what looks like a great cast in a great film being developed and directed by the highly accomplished Ridley Scott. 

Gladiator scored more than $460.58 million in global box office receipts and won five Academy Awards. The film won the coveted Best Picture Oscar while star Russell Crowe won Best Leading Actor, but Crowe won’t be back for the long-awaited sequel Gladiator II. Instead, the new film follows up on the story of Lucious Verus, who may or may not be the love child of Maximus and Lucilla. 

Paul Mescal plays the grown Lucius, and Connie Nielsen is back to play his mother, Lucilla. Lucious isn’t Roman royalty in Gladiator II, though. Instead, he’s the featured gladiator, quite likely as part of the ludus owned and run by Denzel Washington’s Macrinus. Pedro Pascal lends his acting talents to Marcus Acacius, a Roman general who served under Maximus before treachery sent him to the gladiatorial arenas of the Roman Empire. 

We also see the return of Juba, the Nubian hunter turned gladiator played by Djimon Hounsou in Gladiator and is back again in Gladiator II. Has Juba won his freedom two decades after engaging in gladiatorial combat alongside Maximus? Or might he be the lead trainer of the ludus owned by Denzel Washington’s Macrinus or perhaps a rival ludus?

When it comes to gladiatorial combat, only one thing is certain for those involved: They must win over the crowd to win their freedom.