While I knew that Ridley Scott was making a Gladiator sequel, I guess I just stopped paying attention to any details about it. I loved – and perhaps still love? – the first Gladiator movie. I was around when it originally came out and I remember how basically every film lover was blown away by it. The cinematography, the story, the performances, the CGI “Rome.” The score is great too, btw. It will be a really difficult film to top and I had no idea how Ridley would even attempt it. As it turns out, he built a story in the same general universe, and Connie Nielsen has come back as Lucilla, the daughter of Marcus Aurelius. Paul Mescal plays her son Lucius all grown up, only Lucilla has sent him away to be raised far outside of Rome for his own protection. Pedro Pascal plays a general who served under Maximus in what would have the timeline of the first movie. Here’s something else I didn’t know: Denzel Washington is in it as a very wealthy “arms dealer” who keeps a stable of young gladiators for sport. Anyway, Vanity Fair has an exclusive photos (see above) and exclusive interviews with the cast and with Ridley. This comes out in November!

Paul Mescal on his Roman nose: “My nose just is kind of Roman. So it’s useful in this context. The nose that I absolutely hated when I was in secondary school—and used to get ribbed for—became very, very useful when Ridley needed somebody to be in Gladiator II.”

Connie Nielsen on Lucilla sending her son away: “There’s a lot of Sophie’s Choice going on here, where these are impossible situations that we are being forced to reckon with. There is an authoritarian power that is parading as if it were still somehow the vestiges of a Republican government. Inside of this travesty are human beings who are caught in this gamesmanship and power. That is what I find always so interesting in Ridley’s stories. He’s really showing the effect of power on people and what happens in a place where power is unrestrained.”

Pedro Pascal’s general, Marcus Acacius: “This movie has an identity that is shaped by [Maximus’s] legacy. It wouldn’t make sense for it not to,” says Pascal. He describes Acacius as a fighter who “learned from the best, so of course this code of honor is ingrained into his training and into his existence. But at the end of the day, he’s a different person. And that can’t change who he is. Maximus is Maximus, and that can’t be replicated. That just makes Acacius capable of different things.”

Ridley Scott on Denzel Washington’s dashing powerbroker Macrinus. “Denzel is an arms dealer who supplies food for the armies in Europe, supplies wine and oil, makes steel, makes spears, weapons, cannons, and catapults. So he is a very wealthy man. Instead of having a stable of racehorses, he has a stable of gladiators. He’s beautiful. He drives a golden Ferrari. I got him a gold-plated chariot.”

[From Vanity Fair]

This whole piece and the photos made me really excited for the sequel. Nothing will ever really compare to how bonkers it was to see Gladiator in the theater the first time, but I actually trust Ridley Scott, I think? It’s clearly something he’s wanted to make for a while and it took him some time to figure out the story and the right actors. It’s cool that Connie has come back too!

Instagram courtesy of Vanity Fair.