Gladiator II

 Years after witnessing the death of Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius must enter the Colosseum after the powerful emperors of Rome conquer his home. With rage in his heart and the future of the empire at stake, he looks to the past to find the strength and honor needed to return the glory of Rome to its people.

Release date: November 15, 2024 (UK)

Director: Ridley Scott

Box office: $398.4 million

Budget: $310 million $210 million (net cost)

Story by: Peter Craig; David Scarpa

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures

Gladiator II takes much creative liberty with the depiction of the later ancient Roman Empire, but its confirmed sequel is set up to veer ever further away from the course of history. Ridley Scott's Best Picture winner Gladiator is by no means strictly historically accurate; while Scott is known for his expansive, textured world-building in the context of historical epics, he firmly decided that he was willing to change certain events for the sake of his story. Perhaps the biggest example in the first movie is the public death of Joaquin Phoenix's Emperor Commodus, in contradiction with the historical figure's assassination.

The story of Paul Mescal's Hanno/Lucius is structured the same way as Russel Crowe's Maximus' narrative, with the goal of crafting a movie of incredible scale about "strength and honor." Gladiator II sees Lucius, having left Rome and his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) as a child, is brought back into the heart of the empire as an enslaved gladiator, out for revenge against the Roman general Acacius (Pedro Pascal). Lucius finds that destiny is inescapable, and he must aid in freeing Rome from tyranny, which leads directly into how Gladiator II's ending is the biggest derivation from history yet.