Russell Crowe Was A Little Jealous After Seeing The Gladiator 2 Set
Ridley Scott's 2000 historical epic "Gladiator" — based very, very, very loosely on real history — follows a fictional Roman military commander named Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) who suffers a long string of terrible tragedies. Maximus is poised to be the next Roman emperor, but the sniveling, Richard III-like Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) usurps the throne instead. Maximus is arrested for not pledging loyalty, but evades capture and flees home ... only to find that his wife and child have been crucified. Maximus is then kidnapped by slave traders and sold into the gladiatorial arena. He now has to murder others to stay alive and keep his true identity secret, all while Commodus becomes more and more corrupt.
Eventually, at the end of a 155-minute movie, Commodus is punished for his evil. Maximus, however, also dies while fighting the villain. Justice is done, and Maximus can finally succumb to mourning. The final shots of the film are of Maximus reunited with his family in Heaven.
To clarify: Maximus is really most sincerely dead. He didn't sustain an injury he can recover from. The life drained from his body, and his soul ascended to the afterlife. There are no further chapters to Maximus' story.
This, of course, hasn't stopped fans and filmmakers from positing a potential "Gladiator 2." There were many, many iterations of "Gladiator 2" over the years, each one more farfetched than the last. It won't be until 2024 that Scott will return with a proper sequel, a film that is currently filming in Morocco.
As it so happens, Crowe — as he revealed in a recent interview with Screen Daily — got to visit the set of "Gladiator 2" while touring with his band in Malta. He admitted to a twinge of jealousy.
Who put the glad in gladiator?
Several of the proposed "Gladiator" sequels were pretty out there. Early on, "Gladiator 2" was to be about a character named Lucius, a descendent of Maximus, learning about his father 15 years after his death. While that project was developing, rocker Nick Cave was hired to write an expressionistic "Gladiator" sequel he wanted to call "Christ Killer." Cave's story saw Maximus living in Purgatory before he was resurrected as a vengeful Roman deity. The now-immortal Maximus was tasked with assassinating Jesus Christ, as Christianity threatened Roman religions. Maximus would live through multiple wars over many centuries, with the film ending in the present. Cave's movie sounds like wild fun, but the project was eventually scrapped.
Crowe, meanwhile, wanted to address the rumors that he would return to play Maximus. The actor wanted to assure people that the answer was an emphatic no. Indeed, he spent so much time talking about "Gladiator 2," Crowe thought it should be cut into his paycheck from the first movie. The actor said:
"They should be f***ing paying me, for the amount of questions I've had to answer about a f***ing film that I'm not even in. It's got nothing to do with me; in that world, I'm dead, six feet under, and that's that."
Crowe is the frontman of a folk-ish band called 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, which he formed in 1992. They have put out three records and tour regularly. While singing in Malta, Crowe saw a full-scale reproduction of the Colosseum set from the first "Gladiator," and felt a rush of nostalgia. He was jealous of the actors who were lucky enough to have the same experience he had some 25 years prior.
The Colosseum
Crowe was already 34 when he made "Gladiator," but he looks back at that time as a more youthful period. Seeing the Colosseum in all its glory had him both wistful and hopeful. Wistful because he very much enjoyed working on that film (which, incidentally, netted him a Best Actor Academy Award) and hopeful because he knew Ridley Scott wouldn't be making a "Gladiator 2" if he didn't have a darn good reason for doing so. Crowe, after all, worked with Scott on four additional movies after "Gladiator" (including "A Good Year," "American Gangster," "Body of Lies," and "Robin Hood").
"I admit to a certain tinge of jealousy because it reminds me not only of my youth, but of what that meant for me in my life. [...] It was a timewarp for a couple of seconds. I don't know anything about the cast or plot — well I wouldn't, because I'm dead — [but] whoever's involved in that movie, if Ridley has decided to do a second part to that story, he will have really strong reasons. It's very typical of Ridley to rethink everything that he's done and know how to make it better. I couldn't think of that movie being anything less than absolutely spectacular when it does come out."
"Gladiator 2" will be the third time Ridley Scott has made a sequel or a follow-up to one of his previous movies. The other two were "Prometheus" and "Alien: Covenant," both continuations of his 1979 film "Alien." Scott also directed "Hannibal," a sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs." Scott is currently working on post-production on his "Napoleon," also starring Phoenix, while also making the second "Gladiator." At the age of 85, Scott is busier than ever. Crowe clearly admires Scott, and has faith in "Gladiator 2."