Ridley Scott’s Gladiator was one of the most important movies to arrive at the turn of the millennium, one that would launch leading man Russell Crowe to A-list stardom, win five Academy Awards from twelve nominations including Best Director for Scott and Best Actor for Crowe and become the second highest-grossing movie of 2000 behind only Mission: Impossible II after bringing in $460 million at the box office.
The success of Gladiator also led to a huge resurgence in the popularity of both the sword-and-sandal genre and the historical epic, with theaters soon becoming deluged by titles like Troy, The Last Samurai, Alexander, King Arthur and many more, and Scott himself even returned to the well twice with Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood, the latter of which starred Crowe in the title role.
Gladiator may have infiltrated the public consciousness and stayed there for a while, as well as having a major influence on blockbuster cinema over the following years, but one thing that it definitely didn’t do was leave itself wide open for sequels. Nick Cave’s version of the follow-up was famously insane and featured time travel among other things, but the studio sadly never seemed sold on the idea.
However, because we live in an age where no recognizable property can ever be left alone, a Gladiator sequel was announced once more in 2018, with Scott potentially returning to direct and Bad Boys For Life writer Peter Craig handling the script. All previous attempts at a follow-up involved Russell Crowe’s Maximus in some form, but the actor recently confirmed that he isn’t currently a part of the project.
“If they’re having conversations about that, those conversations haven’t included me. I’m not sure what they have in mind, at all. Can I just say, with a pinch of salt, they have genuinely been having the same conversations since the year 2000.”
The 56 year-old has got a point, given that talk of another Gladiator has been making the rounds for two decades. And presumably, he’s been posed enough questions about it over the years that he’s no doubt gotten pretty good at drowning it out by now.
