The first footage of «Gladiator 2» Ridley Scott was published by Vanity Fair. They feature a fight between Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal, and introduce new and familiar characters The following text contains spoilers of the movie’s plot, read it at your own discretion.
Now that it is known that «Gladiator 2» will be released in theaters on November 22, the film crew is ready to tell the rest of the world where the new story begins. The central character portrayed by Mescal is Lucius, who was last seen as Lucilla’s young son.
Connie Nielsen returns in the sequel as one of the few real figures in the fictional storyline of «Gladiator» — the daughter of the late Emperor Marcus Aurelius. In real history, Lucilla was a true revolutionary who lost faith in the direction Rome had taken after her father’s death.
Decades have passed since the events of the first film, and Lucius has come of age far from his mother. When he was just a child, Lucilla sent him to the northern coast of Africa, to the region of Numidia near the Roman Empire. He never fully understood why, and as he grew stronger, so did his resentment — even if his mother’s intentions were noble.
At the beginning of «Gladiator 2» Lucius Mescalus has a wife and child and lives a relatively peaceful life until conquerors from his homeland begin to encroach on new lands.
«He has put down roots in a seaside town in Numidia. He’s a blue-eyed, fair-skinned man with red hair, and he can’t help but look different from the people there. It’s one of the last surviving civilizations as the Romans begin to descend into North Africa and take over the whole», — says Ridley Scott.
The invasion is led by Marcus Acacius, played by Pedro Pascal, a Roman general who is said to have trained as a junior officer under the leadership of Maximus Russell Crowe. For Lucius, Acacius is a symbol of everything he hates. Lucius, once the grandson of the Emperor of Rome, finds himself captured by it.
«When he arrives in Rome as a prisoner and fights his first round in the arena, he sees his mother — to his shock. He does not know if she is alive or not. How can he know? You don’t have phones. There is no press. And there’s his mother in the royal box, looking pretty good after 20 years. And she’s with the general he met face to face on the wall at Numidia,» Ridley Scott says.
The leaders of Rome — sadists. The vast empire is ruled by two relatively young brothers: Fred Hechinger as Emperor Caracalla and Joseph Quinn as Emperor Geta. They threaten Lucilla’s well-being in order to control Acacia. The anger Lucius feels toward them is channeled into his battles with Acacius.
«Gladiator 2» has a special meaning for Scott, who at 86 is still working hard and making movies frequently «I was slow out of the starting gate, — he says. «I mean, I had to do the sequels to «Alien» and «Blade Runner». You change over the years. At the time, I didn’t want to go through that again». But he decided to keep «Gladiator».
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