Ahead of the release of Gladiator 2, director Ridley Scott spoke to Empire regarding what to expect in terms of action.
Known for a long-list of epic battle scenes from films like 2005’s Kingdom of Heaven to 2023’s Napoleon, the filmmaker shares that the sequence he created for Gladiator 2 is larger in scale than anything he has done before. He told the publication, “We begin the film with probably the biggest action sequence I’ve ever done. Probably bigger than anything in Napoleon.” The film stars Paul Mescal as Lucious, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), who was the original film’s antagonist. The first film came out in 2000 and followed Lucius as a young adult in Numidia. He finds himself back in Rome as a gladiator, with new enemies and reuniting with his mother.
Scott shares very little details about the upcoming sequel. on the use of AI he said, “Computerization and AI — you have to embrace it. I can have a computer read every molecule and wrinkle on a rhino and then cut it on a thick piece of plastic, absolutely as a rhino’s body, which is then tailored to a skeleton shape.” He continued, “I have this thing that can do 40 miles an hour, spin on the spot, wag its head and snarl. A two-ton rhino with a guy on its back! I mean, it’s a lot of fun.”
Gladiator 2 arrives in theaters on November 22.
