GLADIATOR 2 RELEASE DATE REVEALED AFTER OSCAR-NOMINATED ACTOR 'JOINS PICTURE'
Gladiator 2 has been teased a few times over the past 23 years, but reports claim the beginning of its production has finally started. And this week, a new report has detailed the release date of the upcoming movie, which acts as a direct sequel to the first Gladiator movie, which hit cinemas in 2000.
Gladiator 2 is reportedly going to take place around 20 years after the first film and will star a new cast with some returning characters. Not a lot of information has been released about the movie just yet, but the new report says Gladiator 2 will hit cinemas as soon as next year.
Gladiator 2 will be released on November 22, 2024, as per Deadline.
Oscar-winning director Ridley Scott is making a comeback as the franchise's director, and will also be producing the movie alongside Michael Pruss, Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher. David Scarpa has written the screenplay.
Even more exciting is that Gladiator 2's main character will be known to fans of the first movie.
Last month it was reported Paul Mescal will be the film's leading actor. Mescal rose to fame in the BBC series Normal People, and has since been nominated for an Oscar in the recently released movie Aftersun.
The 27-year-old Irish actor will be playing Lucius, the son of Lucilla from the first movie. No other plot details have been revealed about the sequel just yet.
Scott spoke candidly about the follow-up back in 2021 while he was promoting his picture House of Gucci.
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Scott told Empire: "I'm already having [the next] Gladiator written now." Referring to his upcoming movie about the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, he added: "So when I've done Napoleon, Gladiator will be ready to go."
He later told Deadline: "Oh, it's been written. It's already been written. We have a good footprint, a good, logical place to go. 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 Sun later reported: "This has been building since 2018 and for a long time it looked like it may never see the light of day but suddenly late last year the production team really sprung into life after settling on a new script which seemed to inspire them. A few months later everything was up and running and now it's well underway. They should be filming by May, which means there's every chance the movie will be ready some time in 2024."
At the moment, there is no word whether Russell Crowe will be reprising his role as the first film's protagonist, Maximus Decimus Meridius.
Of course, the character was killed off in the final moments of the picture, but that hasn't stopped iconic characters in cinema in the past from returning in some way.
2023-02-04T17:02:56Z dg43tfdfdgfd