Trailer
Plot summary
Numidia is home to Hanno and his wife, Arishat, until the Roman army under General Justus Acacius invades; Arishat is killed and the survivors are carried off as slaves. At Ostia, the captives are set against baboons in a display meant to advertise them as prospective gladiators, and Hanno's violence in that fight draws the notice of Macrinus, the stable master, who tells him that enough victories in Rome will bring him face to face with Acacius. Rome has been ruled for sixteen years, since the death of Marcus Aurelius, by the twin emperors Caracalla and Geta, who are preparing games in the Colosseum and pressing the returning Acacius to join their campaigns abroad.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Gladiator II (2024)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- A scrapped sequel draft by Nick Cave sent Maximus back to Earth to end Christianity by killing Jesus and his disciples. In it, Maximus is tricked into murdering his own son and is cursed to live forever, fighting in the Crusades, World War II and Vietnam; Steven Spielberg told Scott it wouldn't work.
- The production received €46.7 million in film incentive rebates from Malta, which set a record as the largest rebate ever issued for a film production in the European Union.
- The rhinoceros in a fight sequence was created with 3D printing and controlled by radio remote. Shooting the scene took two or three days, and the temperature affected Paul Mescal's physicality.
- Ridley Scott cast Paul Mescal as the lead after a brief Zoom call, having come across him while watching the miniseries Normal People as a "bedtime story". Austin Butler, Richard Madden, Timothée Chalamet and Miles Teller had also been considered for the role.
- Egyptian-Palestinian actress May Calamawy, originally set to play Fortuna, an "important character", appears only in an uncredited, non-speaking background role as Macrinus' companion. Some publications linked her omission to the Gaza war and her support for Palestine.
