We have been waiting for a long, long time director Ridley Scott to make his beloved best classic for the best picture in 2000, Gladiator. That sequel arrived at the end of 2024 in the form of Gladiator II. Although not as praise as his predecessor, the sequel ended as one of the highest films of the year, and he did Without returning the previous Starwar, Oscar winner Russell Crowe as Maxim Dekim Meridius. This is because Maxim died in the first ... but that didn't stop the writers from trying to get him back anyway.

In a recent interview for DirectlyScreenwriter Peter Craig revealed that there was, at one point, a scene that would return Crow as Maxim. This will happen at the end of the film and will happen through a retrospective with Lucius by Paul Mescal, who (spoiler warning) is actually the son of Maxim. Here's what Craig had to say about it:

"There was an idea that the Romans had that you could talk to your ancestors, and they had these underground catacombs where peoples and ashes and bones were buried under the city. There was a scene where Lucius once revealed that his father was going there and finding his grave. And there was only short resolution with Russell."

For what is worth, Only two actors from the first "gladiator" returned to the sequel: Connie Nielsen (Lucilla) and Derek Jacecobi (Senator Grakas). So it's not like Crow's missing some great unification. However, it is easy to see why Craig and Scott at least considered this option.

For better or worse, Maxim threw a very big shadow over the sequel, though Crow did not actually appear in the film. There have been different versions of the sequel over the years but Scott finally felt as if it were the right time to make a "gladiator II". To do this without the people who made the original so big a hit was a high order.

Several other writers, along with Scott, eventually made the story that we saw it unfolded in the sequel. The director ended up as a big fan of how it turned out, as He has already announced plans for a potential Gladiator 3 with the return of Paul Meskal. Craig, for his part, feels that they have made the right call to leave this scene with retrospectives outside the film:

"I think they probably made the right decision not to use it. But I was on it with Ridley (Scott) for a while ... I gave them a big menu of things, and they chose some things from it, and I think they left a lot of the right things from it. "

Whether the sequel was satisfactory tracking or is it not a matter of individual taste. Crow's camera probably wouldn't move the needle too much, but it might have felt a little forced. "Gladiator II" has been criticized for lack of historical accuracyBut again, Scott is not trying to make an accurate historical EP. Are you not entertained, you can ask?

You can grab "Gladiator II" at 4K, Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.