Gladiator gets sequel after two decades

After many delays, Gladiator II hits cinemas, and star Paul Mescal feels pressure to measure up to original

- Alison de Souza

Gladiator II is a film more than two decades in the making, a follow-up to Gladiator (2000), which starred New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe as a Roman general who is betrayed, enslaved and forced to fight as a gladiator before dying heroically.

The sweeping historical epic won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe, and was the second highest-grossing movie that year, with more than US$465 million in global box-office receipts.

Then the sequel got stuck in development hell, with numerous delays and false starts.

But it finally opens in Singapore cinemas on Nov 14, with Irish actor Paul Mescal in the lead role of Lucius - son of Crowe's character Maximus - and Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen and Denzel Washington rounding out the cast.

English film-maker Ridley Scott has returned to direct.

Like his father, Lucius is captured by the Roman army and forced to take part in violent fights in the arena, where he must battle it out with other gladiators for public entertainment.

Mescal, 28, has been a screen actor for only a few years, yet has earned an Emmy nomination for his breakout role in the coming-of-age miniseries Normal People (2020) and a Best Actor Oscar nod for playing a troubled father in the dramatic film Aftersun (2022).