The new Gladiator 2 trailer just confirmed Lucius is Maximus' son, and Paul Mescal has the perfect reaction

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A new Gladiator 2 trailer is here, and it promises a brutal return to the Colosseum.

Set two decades after the events of Gladiator, the sequel focuses on Paul Mescal's Lucius, the son of Lucilla and grandson of former emperor Marcus Aurelius. Estranged from his family, he is living with his wife and child in Numidia when Roman soldiers invade. Led by General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), Lucius is forced into slavery, choosing to fight as a gladiator to oppose the Roman emperors, Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and Geta (Joseph Quinn).

In the bloody new trailer we see Mescal's Lucius fighting a baboon, a rhino, and Pascal's brutal commander. Denzel Washington also stars as Macrinus, a mentor figure to Lucius, who we see trying to use Lucius as a pawn in the trailer. "I will never be your instrument, in this life or the next," he tells him.   

However, the biggest reveal comes from Connie Nielsen, back as Lucilla, who tells Lucius that his father was Maximus, Russell Crowe's character from the original film. "Lucius, take your father's strength," she tells him. "His name was Maximus and I see him in you." It's a huge twist, and Mescal has already shared his reaction to it: "I was like, 'Holy s---," he told Entertainment Weekly.

Derek Jacobi also returns as Senator Gracchus in the new movie while Tim McInnerny, Alexander Karim, Rory McCann, May Calamawy, and Matt Lucas all star.

Director Ridley Scott recently teased a bit about returning to the world of Gladiator in an interview with Total Film. "You go through all the questions," Scott told us in the latest issue. "Can I go back to Rome? Can I go into the Colosseum again? Because we did that with Russell [Crowe]. And the answer is: you better be in the Colosseum because it’s called Gladiator. I don’t know how you do it without going back into the Colosseum, otherwise there’s no point in doing it."

Gladiator 2 is released in the UK on November 15 and in the US on November 22. For more upcoming movies, here's our guide to 2024 movie release dates.