Advances in CGI means Gladiator 2 can achieve what was too risky in the 2000 original, which is why we're getting 12 baboons, a "real rhino", and a "massive water battle with sharks"

What do you get when you cross a rhino, a shark, and a dozen baboons? Remarkably, it's not the start of a cheesy stand-up set. It's actually just some of the zoo's worth of animals that have been crammed into Gladiator 2. 

"I’ve got a troop of 12 baboons who are carnivorous. Trust me, these are real. And they look real," Scott tells Total Film in our final issue out on Thursday, October 10, which features Gladiator 2 on the cover. 

"You’re staring at 12 real baboons and a real rhino, and a massive water battle with sharks in the water in the Colosseum."

Thanks to the advances in VFX from the 2000 original, the Gladiator sequel is not only able to showcase its menagerie of mammals and sea life, but also make good on an idea involving rhinos that had to be scrapped a quarter of a century ago.

"CG allowed us to do things we couldn’t do on the first," explains producer Douglas Wick. "We wanted to have a rhinoceros on the first movie. I remember talking to the trainers because it was too expensive to do it just with CG, and they explained, among other things, that once you’ve got a rhino moving, you couldn’t stop it."

Gladiator 2 sees Ridley Scott returning to the world of Ancient Rome, and features plenty of faces both fresh and familiar.

Paul Mescal plays Lucius, son of Russell Crowe's Maximus; Pedro Pascal plays Marcus Acacius; Joseph Quinn is Emperor Geta, and Denzel Washington portrays former slave Macrinus. Connie Nielsen's Lucilla is set to reprise her role from 2000's Gladiator in the sequel, which sees Lucius forced to fight as a gladiator after being taken captive by the Romans.

Gladiator 2 opens in cinemas on November 15. And you can read more about it and a whole lot else besides in the final issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, October 10.

Check out the covers below:

Subscribers have the exclusive text-free cover on the way to them right now, with the issue then hitting shops and digital newsstands on Thursday October 10.