Gladiator II might feel like the sequel nobody asked for, but maybe it’ll be a blast? We’ll see…
If you thought Hollywood was a little too obsessed with superheroes and sequels, this past week of movie trailers won’t do much to disabuse you of that notion…
“Rome must fall. I need only give it a push.”
Ridley Scott is back in the director’s chair for Gladiator II, nearly 25 years since the release of his hit film, Gladiator. (Feel old yet?)
Fellas loved the first film, but whether this sequel will be any good remains to be seen – especially given his most recent run of films as producer and/or director have not exactly blown critics or audiences away. (Rotten Tomatoes.)
Napoleon, his most recent go as director and a similar theme to that of Gladiator II, received Rotten Tomatoes scores of just 58% from critics and 59% from audiences. (To be fair, I haven’t seen it yet.)
This week’s first trailer for Gladiator II certainly looks the part, with a scheming Denzel Washington, a seemingly guilt-ridden Pedro Pascal, and a returning Connie Nielsen as the grief-stricken childhood love of Russell Crowe’s Maximus.
Nielsen’s character Lucilla is significant, at least, because it’s her son Lucius whose journey we follow in this new chapter, following Maximus’s bloody footsteps through the gladiatorial realm years after Rome’s new co-emperors raided his family home when he was still a child.
The real-life Lucius died as a child, but why let facts get in the way of a good story? If indeed it’ll be a good story…
The trailer isn’t without its criticism in the comments, of course.
On YouTube, viewers are criticising the use of rap music and the casting choices in the Gladiator II trailer – possibly to the idea of a black man as a powerful figure in ancient Rome. However, Washington plays a man named Macrinus, who seems to have more than a little in common with the real-life Macrinus, a prefect and briefly the emperor of Rome who was born of the Berber people in Northern Africa.
That said, what we can see of Washington does seem a little out of place for the period. As commenter @bluetreacle said on YouTube – “is denzel playing a time traveler? he’s acting like someone from 2024 who’s gone back to ancient rome for a laugh” .
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Some other gems:
@EthelJung-j5w – I’m so relieved that they put a rap song there, because before I was afraid the movie won’t feel Roman enough.
@darthcheeseburger – Jay-Z rapping definitely transported me right back to 476 AD!
@dobriyvecher – Denzel looks like he is in Training Day 2 Rome Edition
@avairal5936 – The producers: We got Denzel, let’s throw a rap song in there to emphasize the roman empire
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