Ridley Scott Praises GLADIATOR 2 Script and Explains What Sold Him on The Sequel

Ridley Scott offered another update on Gladiator 2 during an interview with Deadline. When talking about the script for the film, he said, "Oh, it’s been written. It’s already been written. We have a good footprint, a good, logical place to go."

He went on to explain, "You can't just do another Gladiator type movie. You’ve got to follow…there’s enough components from the first one to pick up the ball and continue it."

The director is then asked about the lasting appeal of Gladiator and the reasons why he is making a sequel after all these years, and this is what he said, "First of all, I love doing period films. I love the research. I love to create sort of smells of the period. 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."

It was this one thing that sold Scott on making the sequel. So what was this “one thing”? It was a piece of art created by Gérôme titled “For Those About to Die”. When talking about it, Scott shared, "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. 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."

Now the filmmaker is prepping to direct the film! We don’t know for sure what the story for the sequel will entail, but it’s been reported that the sequel could follow the continuing story of Lucius, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), “The youth was the nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the weaselly son of Roman leader Marcus Aurelius who murdered his father seized the throne and wound up in the gladiator ring with Maximus, who though mortally wounded, skewered the emperor before fading into the great beyond to reunite with his slain wife and son. Maximus saved the boy and his mother while avenging his own family, and left a strong impression on the young Lucius.”

I’m curious to see how this sequel turns out and what kind of story Scott ends up telling.