Strength and honour are the order of the day in Ridley Scott's gargantuan Gladiator 2. It's the sequel to Scott's triumphant, Oscar-winning Gladiator (2000) and returns us to the heyday of the Roman Empire in all its gilded, barbaric glory.
No one builds historical worlds quite like Scott does and the newly revealed trailer promises a feast for the senses, full of close-quarters combat and intriguing political machinations. Normal People's Paul Mescal is our star and there's an A-list support crew ready to flesh out the environment.
Here's the preview in all of its glory.
impressed by that? Here's what we discovered from the trailer.
The older Lucius is haunted by Maximus' legacy
At the end of Gladiator, young Lucius (played by Spencer Treat Clark, who is consigned to oblivion in this trailer), bore witness to the death of Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe).
The latter was the gladiator turned slave who turned the tables on Lucius' uncle, the murderous and scheming Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) who murdered Maximus' wife and child and plotted to murder Maximus too. However, our hero escaped and found himself sound into slavery where he began plotting his revenge, ultimately killing Commodus in the arena.
At the outset of Gladiator 2, Lucius has grown up beyond the reach of the Roman Empire in North Africa, sent there by his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) who witnessed first-hand the extent of her power-mad brother's corruption.
The Gladiator 2 trailer begins with the impressively buff Paul Mescal as Lucius, gazing upon the rudis (wooden sword) that was given to Maximus by the late slave owner Proximo (Oliver Reed). It's an item granted to enslaved gladiators by the emperor, signifying they've achieved their freedom.
It's a powerful totem, a symbol of freedom, redemption and the cruel consequences of revenge. It also acts as a reflection of Lucius' current circumstances. Why is that? *Scooby Doo flashback*
Denzel Washington's character Macrinus is the new Proximo
Gilded with more bling than his character in the Oscar-winning Training Day, the always-excellent Denzel Washington cuts an imposing figure as Macrinus. At this stage, it's hard to tell whether he's a wolf in sheep's clothing.
In reality, he, like Proximo before him, is more of an opportunist (possibly with a deeply concealed moral centre). He visits Lucius, who claims to have no memory of his birthplace, mother, father or early childhood, and presents him with the opportunity of becoming a gladiator (an "instrument" as he puts it).
Lucius unwittingly appears to find his destiny mirroring that of Maximus. The old maxim of 'the past is not done' appears to be strong in the Gladiator 2 trailer: there's a reverse shot showing Lucilla taking the child Lucius out of the arena following Maximus' death, which wasn't in the original film, a nifty bit of ret-conning to establish the sequel's narrative.
Of course, when Macrinus tells Lucius this, the latter already appears to have been enslaved, and those circumstances remain hazy in the trailer.
The recent Vanity Fair piece revealed some plot details, namely that Lucius is enslaved by encroaching General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) who arrives in North Africa and takes what human spoils he can. But there's clearly a lot of incidental action that's being withheld from us at this stage.
Later in the trailer, Macrinus states outright that he wants to see Rome fall, and appears to be manipulating events so he can lead his own army. This is above and beyond what Proximo wanted – in the end, he devoted himself to Maximus' freedom at the cost of his own life, but Macrinus looks like a more complicated proposition.
The Colosseum gets an upgrade
Who can forget that moment of watching Gladiator for the first time and being awed by the CG spectacle of the Roman Colosseum?
Much was made about how the lower two rows of the set were digitally replicated upwards and outwards (impressive in the days when CGI was still fairly rudimentary) to create a sumptuous architectural homage to the all-conquering Roman Empire.
Gladiator 2 throws us right back in the thick of it. The Colosseum is now being filled with water and this isn't a work of fantasy. In the dying days of Rome, the various Emperors really did deliver pitched battles between ships.
Is the Empire depicted in Gladiator 2 therefore on its last legs and increasingly desperate to give the crowd more outrageous entertainment? One suspects that the legacy of Maximus has given the subsequent Emperors and gladiatorial profiteers a lot to live up to.
There are now two Emperors to contend with
Once again, there's a semblance of historical fact in the script for Gladiator 2. Joseph Quinn (A Quiet Place: Day One) and Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus) play sibling Emperors Caracalla and Geta whose turbulent power-sharing arrangement portends drastic things for the people of Rome.
The two brothers existed in real life and the effectiveness of their legacy continues to divide scholars. One shouldn't expect Gladiator 2 to adhere that strictly to historical fact – we're here to watch a movie, not experience a lecture, after all.
It seems like Quinn and Hechinger have tapped into their inner Caligulas to play despotic and ruthless leaders. It's suggested that their warmongering efforts led to the attack on Lucius' home, bringing him into the path of Acacius and leading to his incarceration as a galley slave (one of several apparent nods to the classic 1959 Charlton Heston swords and sandals epic Ben-Hur).
The relationship between Lucius and Lucilla is uncertain
Connie Nielsen's Lucilla watches Lucius in the arena – but does she know this is her son about to square off against a charging rhino? She's either already had the news and adjusted to it in her own impassive way – or doesn't know and is about to be hit with an almighty emotional shock in the next scene.
We're already imagining a familial twist on the scene in the first Gladiator when Maximus revealed his face to the horrified Commodus. It would be another neat way of evoking and inverting the past, reinforcing how we're all, in the words of Proximo, "shadows and dust".
At any rate, later in the trailer, Lucilla passes her former lover Maximus' ring onto her son, another potent example of the pressure of living up to a legacy. That shot of Lucius stroking Maximus' signature black armour is also a powerful one – it goes to show Maximus' longstanding impact in challenging the might of the Roman Empire and the struggle of subsequent generations to come to terms with it.
Marcus Acacius may be the new Commodus
In another clear mirroring of the first film's narrative, Lucius and his mortal enemy Acacius are pitted against one another in the ring. How we get here is uncertain – there's clearly a lot of power-brokering going on between Macrinus and the two Emperors.
Either way, Pedro Pascal's character finds himself humbled and thrown into the chaos of the Colosseum where he likely never imagined himself. This is similar to how the first Gladiator climaxed, in a do-or-die battle between the Empire's most powerful man and the unlikely individual who challenged his authority.
But will Lucius kill Acacius? Or will the two characters realise they are possibly being played by forces beyond their control? Maybe Lucius realises that Macrinus isn't the benefactor he appears while Acacius discovers that he isn't the Emperor's puppet but a disposable plaything, as disposable as thumbs down in the arena.
All of this is conjecture at this stage. What can't be denied is we've got more than enough character, action and period detail to feast on.
Gladiator 2 is released on November 15th. If you can't wait that long, click the link below to discover 2024's upcoming action films.
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