Gladiator 2 First Look Reveals A Fighting Pit?
A short video of the location Ridley Scott is using in Morocco for a coliseum in Gladiator 2 has surfaced on Twitter.
We’re finally getting a behind the scenes sneak peak of Ridley Scott’s long-awaited Gladiator 2 on Twitter, and it’s safe to say that the coliseum scenes are going to be nothing short of epic. Just today, Twitter account @SolaceCinema shared a short video of a coliseum in Morocco, and we’re getting goosebumps imagining what kind of stunning cinematography we’ll see play out in the fighting pit that was presented to us in the 22-second video. Now that we know that the set for a number of potential fighting sequences has been secured, all we have to do is wait for the film to be completed so we can be awestruck by what’s to come.
Though we all know that Russell Crowe’s Maximus Decimus Meridius succumbed to mortal wounds at the end of 2000’s Gladiator, sources indicate that this upcoming sequel will follow his descendants. IMDb tells us that Gladiator 2 will follow the story of Lucius (Paul Mescal), the son of Maximus’ lover Lucilla, after Maximus’ death. Though the issue of parentage is up for debate, early iterations of the script dating back to 2003 and 2006 suggest that Lucius is in fact Maximus’ secret son.
Alongside Paul Mescal, Gladiator 2 will boast an all-star cast including Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, as well as Connie Nielsen, reprising her role as Lucius’ mother Lucilla.
As for the current storyline for Gladiator 2, Russell Crowe has stated that the upcoming sequel will revolve around Lucius becoming emperor. But we may have to take this recent assertion with a grain of salt because Crowe also mentioned that he won’t be involved with the production. In other words, though Crowe’s description is probably not without merit, Ridley Scott may have a different story in mind than what Crowe has said in recent interviews.
One other idea for Gladiator 2 that was since scrapped involved a Christ-like resurrection for Maximus in Nick Cave’s rejected script, as remembered by Collider. It certainly would have been an interesting direction to go — including, among other things, Greco-Roman gods and time travel — but probably not the kind of thing Russell Crowe was looking for when he recruited Cave for the job.
However, it’s worth noting that Gladiator did not have a fully fleshed-out script when it was in production, and the cast was known to take issue with the number of revisions that they were presented with during principal photography. So even though the above developments for Gladiator 2 seem likely, we’re willing to speculate that some details have yet to be ironed out, and we’ll just have to wait and see.
If past successes are any indication of future work, it’s safe to say that Gladiator 2 is in good hands. After all, Gladiator pulled in over $500 million at the box office against a budget of $103 million and won five Academy Awards. As of now, Gladiator 2 is slated for a November 22, 2024 release date, but it’s still in the pre-production phases at this point in time.
