I’m very excited about Gladiator 2, though the way it mirrors the original makes it feel like a remake rather than a true sequel. As much as I loved the original Gladiator and would like to have seen more of Russell Crowe as Maximus, it was a wise move not to undo the film’s poignant ending. Maximus dies at the end of the movie and is reunited with his family in the afterlife, and a direct sequel that resurrected his character would have undone that ending’s emotional impact.

Talk of a Crowe-free Gladiator sequel didn’t do much to excite me either, as it felt like the Ridley Scott movie was best as a standalone. The director is making a strong case for the sequel to exist, however, casting actors like Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal as the new leads. Gladiator 2’s excellent trailer is building the hype even more, which sets up the story while showcasing stunning-looking setpieces, including Mescal’s new protagonist Lucius fighting a rhino.

Gladiator 2’s Story Feels Eerily Close To The First Film

A general becoming a gladiator and then defying an empire, you say?

The early buzz on Gladiator 2 is strong, and I genuinely can’t wait to see it. That said, I couldn’t shake the feeling the film is simply recycling the original’s plot instead of evolving it. It feels like Scott’s sequel has split Maximus (Crowe) into two characters: Mescal’s Lucius and Pascal’s General Acacius. Lucius is seeking revenge against the empire for the deaths of his loved ones by becoming a gladiator, while Acacius defies his Emperors and becomes a gladiator also.

In Gladiator 2’s new cast of characters, Denzel Washington’s gladiator trainer Macrinus feels like a new take on Oliver Reed’s Proximo, while Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus gets not one but two replacements in the forms of Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Fred Hechinger’s Caracalla. The biggest difference between the latter characters is that their performances appear significantly hammier. I can even tell from the setpieces that the same sense of escalation will face our new heroes in the arena; in the same way Maximus suddenly had to fight against tigers, poor Lucius has to face a rhino.

Gladiator 2 looks like the kind of sequel that used to happen during the 1980s and 1990s, where filmmakers attempted to copy the formula of the original almost exactly. None of this stops me getting excited for the sequel, which looks like Ridley Scott’s most purely enjoyable blockbuster since The Martian. Even so, I’m a little worried Gladiator 2’s adherence to the first film could rob it of genuine surprises.

Gladiator’s Original Ending Makes A Follow-Up Story Difficult

Bringing Maximus back would never have worked

Nobody was expecting Gladiator to become the gigantic hit that it did. Critics and audiences loved it, and soon, there were calls for a sequel. Since Maximus is definitively dead by Gladiator’s ending, that was always going to be tricky. Part of me wishes that Nick Cave’s famous Gladiator 2: Christ Killer actually had come to pass, since it could have been the wildest big-budget sequel ever produced. This saw the old Roman gods resurrect Maximus and force him on a quest to kill Jesus Christ, whose teachings were slowly destroying them.

In the end, Maximus becomes immortal, and the script finished with a montage of Crowe’s character fighting his way through history’s biggest wars, including Vietnam. Cave has since claimed Crowe’s only response to his screenplay was “Don’t like it, mate.” This outlandish premise shows how impossible bringing Maximus back was, with other pitches suggesting he faked his death in the coliseum so he could be smuggled out of Rome. I think Gladiator 2 is trying to be a legacy sequel in the truest sense, with Maximus’ spirit being part of the story in how he inspires Lucius’ revenge quest.

Gladiator 2 Must Do More Than Retread The First Movie’s Story

Gladiator 2’s trailer could be misleading

The response to Gladiator 2’s first preview has been broadly positive – the backlash to the use of Jay-Z’s “No Church in the Wild” aside. The preview could be using the basic elements of the plot to make it feel like a direct follow-up to Scott’s original while hiding other major story beats. I really hope this is the case because while I want to revisit this world through Scott’s lens, I don’t want a loose remake either.

In the past, Scott has suggested Gladiator 2 could explore the corruption at the core of Rome, and the brief glimpses of Emperors Geta and Caracalla suggest he’ll be doing just that. The trailer also sets up Lucius and General Acacius as staunch foes, but given that they have a common enemy, they will likely become reluctant allies before the credits roll. I’m rooting for Gladiator 2 to live up to the 24-year wait, but we all deserve more than an expensive retread.