‘Gladiator’ Sequel Moving Forward With Ridley Scott Directing
By Chris Evangelista/Nov. 1, 2018 1:38 pm EST
A Gladiator sequel has been a dream project of Scott’s for years, and the concept of Gladiator 2 has gone through several incarnations. At one point, goth rock troubadour and screenwriter Nick Cave wrote an absolutely batshit crazy and awesome-sounding sequel in which Crowe’s Maximus goes to hell and back, and deals with the gods and other paranormal forces. “[He] goes to purgatory and is sent down by the gods, who are dying in heaven because there’s this one god, there’s this Christ character, down on Earth who is gaining popularity,” Cave said. “And so the many gods are dying, and they send Gladiator back to kill Christ and all his followers….The main guy was [Maximus’] son, so he has to kill his son and he was tricked by the gods. He becomes this eternal warrior and it ends with this 20 minute war scene which follows all the wars in history, right up to Vietnam and all that sort of stuff.”
I love this idea, but sadly, it was too weird and wild for Hollywood to produce. Instead, we’ll have to deal with Lucius. This idea has come up before. In fact, it was DreamWorks’ original idea for a sequel – showing Rome evolving with Lucius as the new main character. At the time, Scott said he thought the idea was too complex, but he’s apparently changed his mind. In Cave’s now-abandoned script, the adult Lucius was the villain, having grown as evil as his uncle.
