2024's biggest movies - Everything you need to know about Gladiator 2

Martin Macdonald - 9 February 2024, 19:30 Share

The impact of the 2023 actor and writer strikes in Hollywood is still being felt in 2024 as many big productions face significant delays.

However, there are still some major, highly-anticipated movies that will be released this year, including Gladiator 2.

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The first Gladiator was one of the most acclaimed movies of the noughties and earned a flurry of awards including the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe.

What is the plot of Gladiator 2?

There is no official synopsis yet, but Paul Mescal is in the lead role of Lucius. The son of Lucilla and nephew of Commodus, he struck a bond with Maximus in the first movie, who may or may not be his father.

Plot details on Gladiator 2 are thin, but Ridley Scott has provided some more background on where Lucius is at in his life.

“Paul is playing Lucius... That’s someone who was 12, and this is about 12, 15 years later," Scott previously told Rotten Tomatoes.

"He’s been out in the wilderness having lost touch with his mother. Mother lost touch with him, doesn’t know where he is. She thinks he might be dead.”

Gladiator cast

Gladiator 2 features an all-star cast including Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, and Derek Jacobi.

Nielsen and Jacobi are reprising their role from the first movie.

Russell Crowe is not in Gladiator 2

As everyone who has seen the first movie will know, Crowe's Maximus Decimus Meridius died at the conclusion after an epic battle with Commodus inside the Colosseum.

The actor previously confirmed that he won't be involved in the sequel.

"I'm sure at some point in time they'll want to ask me about something, but they haven't brought anything up in a while," he told RTE Radio One.

"It's an extension of the narrative, but it is long beyond Maximus' passing, so it doesn't really involve me at all."