Gladiator 2: What Really Happened?

A story of Ridley Scott, Nick Cave, and the craziest movie sequel that never happened.

by James Hunt
Gladiator Russell Crowe
Universal

Gladiator was a huge hit when it released back in 2000, achieving the fabled double whammy of being a commercial smash AND a critical darling that played well with the Academy.

It took over $450 million at the box-office, making it Ridley Scott's highest-grossing movie - a record that would remarkably stand until 2015's The Martian - and went on to be nominated for 12 Oscars, winning five of them including Best Picture and Best Actor.

It was, however, a tightly contained story: it told of a very specific person in a very specific time period, and with Russell Crowe's Maximus dying at the end of the movie, and most of the other key players going the same way, there wasn't an obvious route for a follow-up. That's never going to stop Hollywood from trying though, as Scott, Crowe et al have been trying to make a sequel to Gladiator for almost two decades.

With new talk of a potential sequel ramping up in recent years, it's time to look back on the storied history of Gladiator 2 - which, yes, involves time travel - and ask what really happened?

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Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.