The unmade sequel to Gladiator

2000’s Gladiator might have been conceived as a single movie, but it didn’t stop Hollywood exploring ways to make a Gladiator 2.

This article contains spoilers for Gladiator.

“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next”. A pretty memorable speech, and one of many quotable passages from an Oscar-winning movie.

Ridley Scott’s epic Gladiator, captured the imagination of the public upon its release in 2000. It catapulted Russell Crowe to superstardom, netting him his first Oscar for Best Actor. It won Best Picture too, and was arguably the closest Ridley Scott ever got to a Best Director Oscar, with Steven Soderbergh pipping him at the post for Traffic.

Gladiator would also serve to be the final appearance of Oliver Reed, who died during production while on location in Malta. The film of course follows the story of Maximus Meridius, a noted Roman general who is forced into becoming a slave after Commodus betrays his father, Marcus Aurelias, by murdering him to seize power.

Based on the book the 1958 book Those About to Die by Daniel P. Mannix’s, the original screenplay was written by David Franzoni, with later rewrites by John Logan and William Nicholson. They would later be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay as well (losing in this case to Cameron Crowe for Almost Famous).

When Gladiator became a gigantic hit, hastily compiled plans were soon afoot for a sequel. As those who’ve watched the film may know, it’s not an easy film to plot a sequel too, and they didn’t go into the making of the movie with a cinematic universe in mind. Bottom line: there were obvious problems with such an idea: namely, that the lead character doesn’t make it to the end credits. Didn’t stop people having a go though. And one of the attempts was, well, really quite something.

That said, the main issue with Gladiator 2, even after two decades, has always been the script. Gladiator, as a story, has a perfect three act structure, with a character arc that is well and truly finished by the end. Maximus finally exacts his revenge on Commodus, killing him before succumbing to his own injuries. What’s he supposed to do next? Get out of the shower and declare it’s all a dream? The initial talks about a follow-up thus soon petered out, although for a few years after the film’s release, there were still planned.

It wasn’t until 2018 that a sequel was fully mooted, with Variety reporting that Scott was back on board to direct, this time from a screenplay by Hunger Games writer Peter Craig.

This is where the story gets interesting. It was around this time that a story surfaced of a legendary ‘lost’ Gladiator sequel script, that had been developed some time before. Bad Seeds musician Nick Cave reportedly wrote a screenplay that would have seen Crowe’s Maximus resurrected from the dead in order to kill a Christ figure on Earth.

This is not made up. In fact, it’s turned into one of the finest recent stories of a Hollywood sequel that never got made.

As reported by Far Out,  Cave explained that “he goes down 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 and so the many gods are dying so they send Gladiator back to kill Christ and his followers. I wanted to call it Christ Killer and in the end, you find out that the main guy was his 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 and it was wild”.

“It was a stone-cold masterpiece”, he added.

Russell Crowe’s words, upon learning of the story, were simply “Don’t like it mate”. Bloody killjoy. Cave’s Gladiator 2 died before it began, with no sign of resurrection.

But the story of trying to get a new Gladiator doesn’t quite end there. According to New Idea, whilst filming for Thor: Love and Thunder in 2021, Chris Hemsworth approached Crowe with ideas for the sequel, with the intention of co-producing. More promisingly, the most recent news comes from Empire, who reported that the Gladiator sequel is closer than ever. Scott is intending to get to work on it as soon as he’s finished with his upcoming Napoleon film, which also stars Joaquin Phoenix.

Whether Crowe returns or not, it’s safe to say that the story of Gladiator 2 will not be an easy one to crack. With Scott at the helm, though, we can be sure that the sequel is in a very safe pair of hands. And if Gladiator 2 can happen, then surely it’s just a matter of time before James Cameron thinks, y’know, Titanic 2 might be a goer…

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