Ridley Scott teases Gladiator 2, knows how to bring Russell Crowe back

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Spoilers if you haven't seen GLADIATOR, which, by the way, isn't too far off from celebrating its twentieth anniversary. How's that for making you feel old. Back in 2000, Ridley Scott's historical epic told the story of Maximus (Russell Crowe), a Roman General who found himself reduced to slavery when Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the power hungry son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), betrayed him and seized control of Rome by murdering his own father. The film was a huge success at the time and even took home a few prestigious awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor at the 73rd Academy Awards.

As with most successful things, it didn't take long for people to begin to talk about some sort of continuation of the GLADIATOR story. Thankfully that didn't happen, but Ridley Scott recently discussed the subject while speaking with Entertainment Weekly.

As Russell Crowe's character had died by the end of GLADIATOR, it didn't seem very likely that he would make an appearance in a sequel, but they certainly tried to make it happen. More on that later. At the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Entertainment Weekly asked Ridley Scott about a follow-up to GLADIATOR, and surprisingly, the director not only seemed to be up for a sequel, but he's apparently also come up with a way for Russell Crowe to return to the role of Maximus.

I know how to bring him back. I was having this talk with the studio — ‘but he’s dead.’ But there is a way of bringing him back. Whether it will happen I don’t know. Gladiator was 2000, so Russell’s changed a little bit. He’s doing something right now but I’m trying to get him back down here.

I'm going to file this under "unlikely," but I'd love to know how Scott would bring Russell Crowe back. The actor certainly had his own ideas of how Maximus would return as he once approached Nick Cave (THE PROPOSITION) to pen a sequel. Previous attempts at a follow-up all revolved around an older Lucius (Commodus' nephew) navigating the brutal politics of Rome, but Nick Cave's script wound up being much stranger. After meddling a little too much with the affairs of the Roman gods in the afterlife, Maximus would have been reincarnated and returned to Rome to defend early Christians, after which he would ultimately live forever, fighting battles throughout history, such as World War II and Vietnam, before ending up as a General in the modern-day Pentagon.

Nick Cave's story ended up being a little too far-fetched for the studios and the project was ultimately shelved, but it seems that the possibility of a GLADIATOR sequel hasn't been completely dismissed by Ridley Scott.

Sound off in the comments and tell us whether a GLADIATOR sequel with Russell Crowe is something you'd still like to see.