Russell Crowe clearly was not entertained by last year’s Gladiator II.
The actor, who won the best actor Oscar for his role as Maximus in Ridley Scott‘s 2000 epic Gladiator, sat down for a conversation with Australian radio station Triple J. As shared on social media, Crowe explained that he had issues with Scott’s 2024 sequel having revealed that his late character had an illegitimate son with Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), despite Maximus having been depicted in the first film as focused on avenging the death of his wife, portrayed by Giannina Facio. Crowe did not film any scenes for the Paramount follow-up that focuses on Maximus’ son, played by Paul Mescal.
“The recent sequel that we don’t have to name out loud is a really good example of, even the people in that engine room not actually understanding what made that first one special,” Crowe said. “It wasn’t the pomp. It wasn’t the circumstance. It wasn’t the action. It was the moral core.”
He added about the initial movie, “And the thing is, there was a daily fight on that set. It was a daily fight to keep that moral core of the character. The amount of times that they suggested sex scenes and stuff like that for Maximus — it’s like, you’re taking away his power.”
Crowe went on to say that he didn’t understand how the first feature would make sense if Maximus was also in a relationship with Lucilla: “So, you’re saying, at the same time he had this relationship with his wife, he was fucking this other girl? What are you talking about? It’s crazy.”
The actor also noted that he heard from unhappy Gladiator fans after the sequel hit theaters last November. “The women in Europe, when that movie started coming out, I would be at a restaurant, and they’d come talk to me [and complain],” Crowe recalled with a laugh. “It’s like, ‘Hey, it wasn’t me! I didn’t do it.’”
Gladiator II also starred Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn and Pedro Pascal and surpassed $462 million at the global box office. Unlike the awards success of the first film — which amassed 12 Oscar nominations and five wins, including best picture — the follow-up nabbed just one nomination for costume design.
During an interview last year with The Hollywood Reporter, Gladiator II screenwriter David Scarpa discussed the challenges of creating a story that still aimed to honor the original.
“You have to deal with people’s emotional relationship to [the original] movie and to their proprietary feelings about it,” the scribe said at the time. “As much as Ridley wanted the continuity of the world, he was not going to just do a greatest hits album of the first movie.”
