Gladiator 2 is in the process of casting Paul Mescal in a major role. The film will be the long-awaited sequel to the 2000 Ridley Scott film Gladiator, which starred Russell Crowe as Maximus Decimus Meridius. The film was an enormous box office hit, earning $460.5 million and becoming the third highest-grossing film in the domestic box office. It was also a critical hit, going on to be nominated for 12 Oscars, winning 5 including Best Picture.
Per Deadline, Mescal is currently in negotiations to take the lead role in Gladiator 2, which is set to be helmed by Scott. He will be playing a grown-up Lucius, the son of Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla who was originally played by Weird: The Al Yankovic Story‘s Spencer Treat Clark. Other actors who were contenders for the role include Bones and All‘s Timothée Chalamet, Elvis‘ Austin Butler, Eternals’ Richard Madden, and Top Gun: Maverick‘s Miles Teller.
Gladiator 2 Could Elevate Paul Mescal’s Career To New Heights
Although Mescal is already a hot commodity in Hollywood, the Irish actor is only at the very beginning of his career. After bursting onto the scene opposite Where the Crawdads Sing star Daisy Edgar-Jones in the 2020 BBC series Normal People, he has gone on to roles in projects that are already receiving strong awards buzz. He followed up Normal People with a role opposite Oscar nominees Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley in 2021’s The Lost Daughter and well-regarded performances in the 2022 films God’s Creatures and Aftersun.
Starring in a major legacy blockbuster like Gladiator could be a huge boost to Mescal’s burgeoning career. This is something that Teller, another Lucius contender, will already know well having appeared as Rooster Bradshaw in 2022’s belated sequel to 1986’s Top Gun. In fact, it could do for Mescal what the original film did for Crowe. Although the Australian star had already appeared in several major projects before Gladiator, his Oscar-winning performance helped propel him into other huge projects like 2001’s A Beautiful Mind (which earned him his third Oscar nomination), 2003’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and 2005’s Cinderella Man.
Everything We Know About Gladiator 2’s Plot
So far, most plot details for Gladiator 2 are being kept tightly under wraps, as the film is still very early in production. However, this casting of Lucius would seem to imply that the film is taking place about a decade and a half after the events of the original film, just slightly shorter than the actual time that has elapsed since the original film’s release 23 years ago. Scott has teased that the film is going in a logical direction from the end of the original film, but it will likely be fictionalized as the real-life historical figure that inspired Gladiator‘s Lucius died at a young age.
