Gladiator 2: How Ridley Scott Planned To Bring Maximus Back For The Sequel

There are a lot of strange stories in Hollywood. Creative types are a strange bunch, and if you ever corner someone who’s been in the business for any significant amount of time, you’ll likely hear a significant number of crazy stories (if you’ve never read William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen Trade, or Which Lie Did I Tell?, they’re chock-full of them — highly recommended). However, every so often, you come across a rumor so weird that there’s no way in hell it could be true, right?

One of those rumors revolved around A-list director Ridley Scott and a sequel to the 2000 hit, Gladiator. Yes, THAT Gladiator — the one where Russell Crowe dies at the end — THAT Gladiator was going to get a sequel. Even stranger is the fact that the sequel would have brought back Maximus. Rumors continued revolving around that script — that involved Maximus in the afterlife, and that he would basically travel into his future. It was silly, weird, and something more akin to a grindhouse movie than a Ridley Scott one.



Speaking to ME.MOVIES, however, Scott reaffirmed this rumor, and even delved into how this script came about.

“It was about bringing [Maximus] back. It’s a good idea. [Russel Crowe] said, ‘listen, I’ve got some thoughts. What can we do with Gladiator?’ and I said, ‘well I think I can bring you back.’ That’s how it began. He’d been working with Nick Cave, so then we talked, the three of us, and out of it evolved the screenplay.”

And as far as how he planned on bringing Maximus back to life…?

“You know I can bring him back, I know how to bring him back. I talked him [Crowe] into how I bring him back. I used the [body] of a dying warrior as a portal to bring somebody back.”

You know, it’s very inspiring to look at someone like Ridley Scott, who has spent so many years in this business. The man clearly knows his stuff, and yet I feel like this particular project is proof that every creative type, no matter how genius, has their lapses in judgment. 

To be fair, the concept in and of itself sounds fun and ridiculous, but the real problem is in the fact that it’s supposed to work as a sequel to Gladiator. Had the film had no association with that classic, I’d be on board as fast as anyone. However, as a follow-up, it feels a bit like something out of a sitcom or a book. 

What do you think of Scott’s method to bringing Maximus back to life? Would you buy it? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: ME.MOVIES

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