Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II looks like it’s shaping up to be the veteran director’s opportunity to do all the bonkers stuff he couldn’t pull off in the original 2000 blockbuster. Sharks in a water-filled coliseum? Absolutely wild. Someone go ahead and preemptively take all my money.
In the newest trailer, dropped by Paramount, Paul Mescal steps into the sandals of Lucius, the grown-up version of the Empire’s former heir and (spoiler alert!) the confirmed son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus. The first trailer only teased this parentage, but this one straight-up confirms it.
Oh, and as if Mescal’s turn as the next gladiatorial hero wasn’t enough, Gladiator II also ropes in Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington. Pascal plays a Roman general who once trained under Maximus, while Washington seems to be taking on the role of a power broker using Lucius and the gladiators for his plans against the co-emperors Geta and Caracalla (Stranger Things‘ Joseph Quinn and Thelma‘s Fred Hechinger). It’s a casting flex so huge it should come with its own laurel wreath.
This is looking to be a good time for all involved.
Gladiator II opens in theaters, Dolby Cinema, Premium Large Formats, and IMAX on Nov. 22.
