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‘Gladiator II’: Ridley Scott, Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal & Connie Nielsen Reveal How All Roads Led To Ancient Rome

‘Gladiator II’: Ridley Scott gets back In the arena with Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen and a badass baboon.

Nobody does these things as well, or efficiently, as Ridley Scott, and with Gladiator II he’s topped the action of the Oscar-winning 2000 original, in a reflection of a more cruel, decadent and crumbling Rome, plagued by years of upheaval since the death of Russell Crowe’s rebel leader Maximus. Lucilla has since remarried, to Marcus Acacius ( Pedro Pascal), a decorated Roman general and a favorite of Rome’s debauched twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). Finding that storyline might seem obvious now, but the biggest reason for the 25-year gap between I and II was that they just couldn’t figure out how to ramp up another when the two main characters — Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus and Crowe’s Maximus — lay dead in the sands of the Colusseum at the end of the movie.

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