Gladiator 2 Gets a Release Date

Gladiator 2 has a release date after the long-awaited sequel hit another development milestone. Paramount is tabbing Ridley Scott's next picture for November 22, 2024 according to Deadline. At the time of talking, Paul Mescal is in discussions to play the lead role. Of course, Scott is a producer for the sequel to the beloved film. Joining him in that capacity are Lucy Fisher, Doug Wick, and Michael Pruss. Penning this tale with be David Scarpa who has been working on this particular project for a while now. It's hard to imagine a legacy sequel this far after the initial release. But, it's likely that Paramount saw the success of Top Gun: Maverick and other legacy efforts and decided to jump on in after the long layover.

Now, Russell Crowe's Maximus won't be returning through time travel or some such mechanism. (Remember that he perished at the end of the first film!) Now, Mescal would be portraying Lucius, the son of Lucilla, who was a boy in Gladiator. Commodus had the kid as a nephew that looked up to the murdered gladiator. It stands to reason that the man that saved he and his mother would have made some impact on him. Other details are scarce beside the Thanksgiving release date. Interestingly, it feels like the only competition it will face at the box office will be a Disney animated feature.

How Did A Gladiator Sequel Get Announced?

David Scarpa's script has been the plan for this movie for a while now. Ridley Scott's Gladiator is absolutely beloved, but there wasn't much talk around a sequel until five years ago. Now, with the script being completed in the spring of 2022, all signs point to the project making that tight deadline. Scott said that the sequel would be his next feature film all the way back in 2021. Finishing Kitbag, was first on the list from the filmmaker. But, after teaming with Joaquin Phoenix again, it's time to head back to even more familiar territory.

"First of all, I love doing period films. I love the research. I love to create sort of smells of the period," Scott told the press back then. "I think what we did with the first Gladiator…I don't like being critical of other things that have happened before, but I wasn't the biggest fan of Hollywood Roman epics, honestly. They felt artificial and so, when I was asked to consider a script, the script was not very good. But the person who gave it to me said, I want to show you one thing, and he picked up an illustration, this is true, it's called For Those About to Die by Gérôme. He holds it up. It's a picture of this big painting of the Coliseum, and in the corner there is this guy, about to tuna fork this poor bastard," Scott added. "He's got this thing in his neck, and he's looking up for permission to kill. I went, bloody hell, that's never been done properly before. Never. I said, I'll do it. He said you will? I said yes. Did you want to read the script? I said no, and we went off and hit the ground running around the table, and evolved the new material."

How do you feel about a Gladiator sequel? Let us know down in the comments!