8 Dead Movie Characters Who Could Actually Return Soon
6. Maximus - Gladiator
Building on the momentum from Romper Stomper and L.A. Confidential, 2000 saw Russell Crowe deliver the most memorable turn of his career as wronged warrior Maximus Decimus Meridius in Ridley's Scott Gladiator.
A general forced into slavery after the murder of his wife and son, Maximus works up his way up the gladiatorial ranks as he seeks his bloody, brutal revenge. That revenge would indeed come, with him killing Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus for all that he had taken from him, but the movie's finale saw Maximus pass away from the wounds suffered in taking down Commodus.
Gladiator's closing shot saw Djimon Hounsou's Juba promising to see Maximus again, and it appears that Juba might've been onto something.
In a 2018 interview with Deadline, Ridley Scott confirmed plans for a Gladiator sequel. And not just that, but he had plans to have Russell Crowe reprise his Maximus role.
At one point, musician-turned-screenwriter Nick Cave was tasked with penning a bonkers Gladiator 2 that would've seen Maximus in a gloomy, rainy afterlife. On a quest to be reunited with his wife and son, his mission is cut short as he is resurrected and thrown into a war between Romans and Christians a couple of decades after his original death. That's only the tip of the iceberg, though, as Crowe's character then lives through (and battles in) the Crusades, World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War.
Upon seeing this sequel script, Russell Crowe wasn't keen on the story. Still, that's not stopped Ridley Scott from still having loose plans for a Gladiator follow-up.