In 2001, weeks after Gladiator won Best Picture at the Oscars, director Ridley Scott began planning a prequel. The idea was to explore the early life of Maximus Decimus Meridius, the Roman general who is betrayed, sold into slavery and whose quest for revenge forms the heart of Gladiator. When the prequel failed to materialise, Scott shifted his focus to a sequel—one that would somehow resurrect Maximus and thrust him into another complex Roman political drama.
This project, too, was ultimately shelved. So he turned his attention to another historical epic, Kingdom of Heaven (2005), a film about the Crusades that one critic called Gladiator’s “younger, less impressive brother”.
Following the release of Kingdom of Heaven, Scott revisited his ambition to create a Gladiator sequel. This time, the story centred on Lucius, the son of Maximus and the heir to the Roman Empire. “It’s the next generation,” Scott explained at the time. “Roman history is so exotic that any part of it is really fascinating.”
Nineteen years later, with Gladiator II, Scott seems determined to prove his statement wrong. The sequel, which has Lucius as the protagonist, lacks the gravitas and elements that made the original such a captivating experience. Instead, it feels uninspired and blatantly commercial—a hollow attempt to cash in on the legacy of its predecessor. Not only is Gladiator II narratively underwhelming, but it also arrives as the cinematic equivalent of flogging a dead horse, nineteen years too late.
The story unfolds two decades after the events of Gladiator. Lucius, now known as Hanno (Paul Mescal), lives a quiet life with his wife in Numidia, on the North African coast. Tragedy strikes when Roman soldiers, led by General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), invade and plunder Numidia. Hanno’s wife is killed, and he is captured, sold into slavery, and purchased by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a former slave who earned his freedom.
Macrinus is a cunning and ambitious figure. He harbours plans to overthrow Caracalla and Geta, the gluttonous and ruthless twin rulers of Rome, and seize power for himself. Seeing potential in Hanno, he trains him as a gladiator, shaping him into a weapon for his political ambitions. “Rage is your gift,” Macrinus tells Hanno. “You will be my instrument.”
The screenplay by David Scarpa—who previously worked with Scott in Napoleon (2023) and All the Money in the World (2017)—brims with sound and fury but lacks depth and substance. It attempts to emulate the narrative structure of the original Gladiator, which unfortunately highlights the sequels’s shortcomings.
In Gladiator, the opening scene introduces Maximus through his final battle in the Roman Empire’s campaign against the Germanic tribes, providing a layered understanding of his character—a respected general, a weary warrior, and a man longing for his family. Gladiator II introduces Hanno in a similar setting, fighting Roman soldiers invading Numidia, but fails to give him the same dimensionality. Hanno is presented as a husband driven more by rage than by grief over his wife’s death—a characterisation that merely serves the mechanics of the plot. His tragedy exists primarily to justify his thirst for vengeance and display of combat skills, rendering him less of a fully realised character and more of a narrative device.
Where Maximus transcended his role as a gladiator to become a leader and symbol of resistance, Hanno feels like a cog in the machinery of the sequel. He may outshine his father in battle prowess, but he falls short in embodying the qualities that made Maximus an inspiring icon. Also, Maximus has passed none of his oratorial talents to Hanno—his motivational words to his team before a gladiatorial game is much too modest for an aspiring Roman leader: “This is about survival. So survive!”
Scarpa could as well be telling us why the plot proceedings are so curt: “This is about making money. So buy the damn ticket if you liked the original!”
That is not to say that Gladiator II is without its pleasures. Chief among them is Denzel Washington, who relishes his role as the Machiavellian Macrinus. On the spectrum of villainy, Macrinus is a far cry from the ruthless New York gangster Frank Lucas, whom Washington portrayed in American Gangster (2007), also directed by Scott. Here, Washington leans into Hollywood camp. While Paul Mescal, a 28-year-old Irish actor with an Oscar nomination already under his belt, plays Hanno with earnestness despite the character’s thin development, Washington, with over four decades of acting experience, seems to understand his assignment perfectly. He is theatrical when needed and as subtle as a snake when setting his machinations in motion.
However, his performance does not come close to the highs of Training Day, the 2001 film that won him his first Best Actor Oscar. Instead, it feels like a darker, more charismatic riff on his role in 2 Guns, a 2013 action-comedy that has its moments but is ultimately forgettable. Because of the film’s shallow storytelling, Macrinus feels like a one-note villain, lacking the complexity of Joaquin Phoenix’s psychotic and power-hungry Commodus in the original. Washington delivers a performance full of potential, but it feels misplaced—a standout searching for a better film to support it. As General Acacius, Pedro Pascal, too, deserved a better script.
Scott’s films are generally praised for their production design, but Gladiator II falls short of his usual standards. The effort to recreate ancient Rome in turmoil seems half-hearted, even bordering on absurdity. One gladiatorial event, for example, imitates a naval battle with multiple replica vessels; the vanquished are devoured by hungry sharks. With Scott and his team having prioritized CGI over historical accuracy, the result is a showy display that often feels more ostentatious than genuinely impressive.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the music. The score, composed by Harry Gregson-Williams—known for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and The Martian (2015)–fails to match the emotional depth of the original. Having started his career assisting Hans Zimmer, who scored the original Gladiator with Lisa Gerrard, Gregson-Williams’s composition feels disjointed and lacks the sweeping resonance of its predecessor. Though the original score is a tough act to follow, his music lacks cohesion and impact.
Perhaps, the reason that Gladiator II is what it is, is not entirely the fault of Scott and his team. Cinema has evolved dramatically since the original Gladiator was released. One of the lasting impacts was its revival of the swords-and-sandals genre in Hollywood, with the film’s tremendous success sparking a wave of historical epics—from Kingdom of Heaven and Troy (2004) on the big screen to Rome (2005-2007) and Spartacus (2010-2013) on television.
When Gladiator debuted, Netflix was a small player, attempting to sell itself to a video rental chain for as little as $50 million. Since then, the rise of streaming platforms has caused a seismic shift in viewing habits and preferences, redefining cinema and storytelling. With more dramatic content now shifting to the small screen in the form of episodic television, many veteran directors, including Scott, have struggled to find their footing.
Three of Scott’s last four films have been historical epics, and all have been commercial failures. His most recent film, Napoleon, was lavishly produced for Apple’s streaming service, which, despite critical reviews, granted it a brief, unprofitable theatre run. With Gladiator II, which Scott co-produced and is being distributed by a traditional Hollywood studio, the 86-year-old director seems to be desperately trying to recapture the success of an era when spectacles like Gladiator drew massive audiences. It is an admirable pursuit, but the frustration in Scott’s latest effort is hard to ignore. “Are you not entertained?” he seems to ask, like Maximus did, almost in exasperation.
No, sir. We aren’t.
Title: Gladiator II (English)
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn, Connie Nielsen
Rating: 2 out of 5
