Gladiator 2: What Really Happened?

5. Russell Crowe's Involvement & A Multi-Generational Tale

Gladiator Maximus
Universal Pictures

A big question mark over the sequel was the involvement of Russell Crowe. While a prequel could easily have brought him back as a slightly younger version of Maximus, the ending of Gladiator couldn't be so easily undone.

A prequel would've solved this, of course, but that idea didn't seem so appealing to DreamWorks, while Crowe himself is reported to have started researching Roman ideas of the afterlife in order to explore what might've happened to Maximus after his death and how he might return in the film.

A compromise of sorts, then, would've seen Gladiator 2 become a multi-generational tale in the same vein as The Godfather Part II: with prequel elements detailing Maximus' early life, alongside the sequel story focused on Rome afterwards and incorporate the story of Lucius. Again, though, it never went much further than the initial development stage, but it's after this things started to get weird.

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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.