Ridley Scott Says Gladiator 2 ‘Ready to Go’ After His Next Movie

Ridley Scott is apparently ‘ready to go’ on making Gladiator 2 – he just has to get done with his Napoleon movie first. Empire dropped the exclusive report from Scott, who told them that “I’m already having [the next] Gladiator written now,” he says. “So when I’ve done Napoleon, Gladiator will be ready to go.” That may seem like the sequel to Scott’s Oscar-winning 2000 sword-and-sandals epic film is close at hand – but really there’s still a bit of a line to get through. After all, Ridley Scott will have three more film out or completed before cameras on Gladiator 2 ever roll 

At the moment, Ridley Scott is getting set for his Medieval (mystery? Thriller? Drama?) The Last Duel to hit theaters on October 15th. That film stars Matt Damon as a knight whose squire (Adam Driver) is accused of sexual assault by the knight’s wife (Jodie Comer), leading the local aristocrat (Ben Affleck) to have the men settle the matter in what would be France’s final officially sanctioned duel to the death. 

After The Last Duel, Scott will release House of Gucci in November; that film will re-team him with Adam Driver, as the titular Gucci empire mogul Maurizio Gucci, and cast Lady Gaga as Patrizia Reggiani, Gucci’s former wife (and the infamous “Black Widow”) who hired a hitman to kill him. Also along for that ride are Oscar winners like Al Pacino, Jare Leto, and Jeremy Irons. 

It’s only after House of Gucci that Scott is re-teaming with Jodie Comer and bringing on Joker star Joaquin Phoenix for the Napoleon biopic Kitbag, which focuses on the infamous French general’s (Phoenix) relationship with his wife, Josephine Bonaparte (Comer). It’s only after that film that the gear on Gladiator 2 will start turning – and at this point, who will believe it’s happening before we see a trailer?

Scott has one person who firmly believes in him getting Gladiator 2 done – producer Doug Wick: 

“Ridley would love to do it. It’s really all about getting something on paper,” Wick confirmed to ComicBook.com. “Everyone [involved with the original] loves the movie too much to ever consider cheaply exploiting it and making something that’s a shadow of it. It’s just really a clear creative problem, working on a script, and if we can ever get it to a place … Ridley’s working on it, it’s really just a question of whether we can get it to a place where it feels worthy to make it. It’s a real challenge.”

The producer also added that “it’s also a real writing problem, too. Like any good movie, Gladiator works by the skin of its teeth… so, again, to take the best of what the audience is attached to, but make it fresh in some new incarnation, it’s really challenging. And, of course, the leading man is dead. If you do Godfather, you say, ‘Okay, the audience loves these stars in this wardrobe,’ and you bring back the old team.”