24 YEARS HAVE passed because Ridley Scott’s Gladiator came out and altered the motion picture world for the next twenty years– and counting. The action-packed smash hit not just made the historic legendary cool once again (motivating films like Troy, Alexander, and even a number of other Scott-directed movies also in the following years), however won a number of Oscars, consisting of Best Picture for the motion picture itself and Best Actor for star Russell Crowe, who was rapidly preserved as one of the movie market’s most cherished and bankable leading males.
Now, in 2024, Scott is going back to the world of among his most popular movies, launching Gladiator II with an (practically) totally brand-new cast. Crowe’s brave Maximus and Joaquin Phoenix’s vicious Commodus are gone, their effect and existence rather towering above a story that’s led by Paul Mescal’s Lucius– a character we last saw in the initial movie as an innocent kid.
Gladiator II is a follow up, however in lots of methods can be found in the mold of much of the “tradition follows up” that we see today; things like Star Wars: The Force Awakens attempts to inform its own story while still including all sorts of referrals and callbacks to the initial movies that fans hold so essential. Just a couple characters from the initial Gladiator return, however that film’s existence is felt all over Gladiator II.
As you prepare yourself for Scott’s go back to the Roman Colosseum, you’re most likely questioning just how much of Gladiator II calls back to the initial Gladiator, and likewise which– if any– of the film’s characters are based upon figures from real-life (because, do not forget, Marcus Aureleius, Commodus, and Lucilla are all based upon real individuals from Roman history, and figured plainly into the initial Gladiator.
Keep reading and we’ll fill you in.
Purchase Gladiator II Tickets Here
Which Gladiator II characters are returning from the initial Gladiator Lucius (Paul Mescal)
Paramount
After figuring into the initial Gladiator movie as a kid (played by Solid star Spencer Treat Clark), Lucius ends up being the lead character of the 2nd movie (and now played by rising star Paul Mescal) in Gladiator II. His mom is Lucilla, and while his daddy’s identity did not figure into the initial Gladiator, the GQ cover story on Mescal validates that his daddy is exposed to be Russell Crowe’s Maximus in the 2nd movie.
Lucilla (Connie Nielsen)
Paramount
Lucilla, who was the child of Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), the sibling of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), and the mom of Lucius in the initial Gladiatorreturns for Gladiator II.