The first official look at Gladiator 2 has arrived – and it both confirms the film's title and teases more about the sequel.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the title is confirmed to be Gladiator II, while the logo – displayed on a golden shield at CinemaCon venue Caesars Palace, Vegas – also includes the tagline: "What we do in life echoes in eternity."
Statues at Caesars Palace have been fittingly adorned for #CinemaCon with promos for Paramount’s ‘Gladiator 2’ pic.twitter.com/6VDOeWHvyMApril 8, 2024
Now, those who know their Gladiator will know that this is a line from Russell Crowe's Maximus, spoken near the start of the film. It would seem it's also the theme of the sequel – again, perhaps unsurprisingly, considering we know the follow-up will be focused on Lucius Verus, who is son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), is Marcus Aurelius's grandson, and is Emperor Commodus's (Joaquin Phoenix) nephew. That's quite the legacy.
Paul Mescal will play the grown up version of Lucius in the sequel, with the massive cast also including Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, May Calamawy, and more. Nielsen and Derek Jacobi are returning to reprise their roles, while Ridley Scott returns to direct.
While no footage from the film has yet been released to the public, early footage reportedly blew studio executives away.
"Can I see Paul Mescal being as big as Russell Crowe? For sure," Scott told our sister publication Total Film of casting Mescal. "I watched Normal People. It's not my kind of show but I saw four episodes in a row – boom, boom, boom. I was thinking, 'Who the hell is this Paul Mescal?' And then I watched the whole series. And then, suddenly, Gladiator 2 came up, because the script was working pretty well. And I kept thinking about Paul. And that was it."
Gladiator 2 releases this November 22. While you wait, check out our guide to all of 2024's most exciting movie release dates for everything else the year has in store.
