‘Gladiator II’ First Images Reveal Sequel’s First Plot Details

The first images of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II are here, and with them we finally have a better sense of what this long-in-development sequel is all about.

Previously we didn’t know much more than the fact that the film focused on the adult version Lucilla’s son from the first film. Crowe’s Maximus died at the end of the original Gladiator, one big reason it took over 20 years to put together a sequel.) Now played by Paul Mescal, Lucius apparently “has a wife and child, and lives a relatively peaceful life with them until conquerors from his homeland begin to encroach.”

Those details come from Vanity Fair, which published the first photos from the film, featuring an extremely swole Mescal, along with other cast members include Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, and Connie Nielsen, who is reprising her role as Lucius’s mother (and Maximus beloved) from 2000’s Gladiator.

READ MORE: Russell Crowe Is “Uncomfortable” With Gladiator II Getting Made

They also published quotes from Scott, Mescal, Pascal, and more. Pascal, for example, plays Marcus Acacius, supposedly “a Roman general said to have trained under Russell Crowe’s Maximus from the 2000 film. Acacius is a fighter who ‘learned from the best,’ says Pascal, ‘so of course this code of honor is ingrained into his training and into his existence.’”

As for how Mescal wound up with the highly-coveted lead role in this massive sequel, Scott explained that he was very impressed by Mescal’s work in the 2020 TV miniseries Normal People.

“Watching a TV show that’s not really my kind of TV show almost four years ago I said, ‘Who’s this guy?’” Scott explained.

Gladiator II is scheduled to open in theaters on November 22.