Proving that what we do in life really does echo in eternity—especially if it earned us a truckload of Oscars and cash in the process—Ridley Scott has confirmed that he’s moving forward with plans for a Gladiator sequel. This isn’t the first time Scott has floated the idea of a follow-up to his Best Picture winner in recent years—he brought the topic up shortly after the release of Alien: Covenant last year—but it is the first time that he’s acknowledged both the ravages of time, re: star Russell Crowe, and also the fact that he totally died at the end of the first one, necessitating the introduction of some new blood into the Gladiator “franchise”.
Consequently, the sequel will apparently shift its focus to an adult Lucius, a.k.a. “the creepy kid from Gladiator”, who’s apparently now all grown up and ready to gladiate. It’s not clear yet whether Spencer Treat Clark will reprise his role from the 2000 film, or if Scott will find a new actor to take up the requisite gladius and big, bombastic speeches. Meanwhile, it’s also not clear what sort of world the new film will take place in; the first movie ended with the implied restoration of the Roman Republic, which definitely didn’t happen in real life—the death of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) actually kicked off one of the nastier civil wars in the empire’s history, ending with a new set of military dictators seizing the imperial throne—so it’s all kind of uncharted territory here, at least as far as history is concerned. But hey, that’s a problem for Scott and new screenwriter Peter Craig (The Town) to solve, not us.