“Gladiator II” is about for a November 2024 launch, some 24 years after the unique movie debuted. At the top of “Gladiator,” we noticed Russell Crowe’s Maximus felled, making his return not possible for the legacy sequel — although Nick Cave’s unproduced “Gladiator II” script would have seen the character resurrected. That signifies that a brand new lead actor was required for the sequel, and firstly of 2023 we discovered Irish actor Paul Mescal had been solid.
The up-and-comer, who prompted a small stir together with his position within the miniseries “Regular Folks,” has been constructing fairly a profession for himself of late, touchdown an Oscar nomination for his efficiency within the good “Aftersun” — the most effective film of 2022 that nobody knew speak about. He additionally impressed together with his flip as Harry in British filmmaker Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers.” However his position as Lucius Verus II in “Gladiator II” is definitely his greatest to this point.
Mescal will not be the primary actor to painting Lucius in a Ridley Scott movie. In truth, the unique “Gladiator” noticed a younger model of the character portrayed by Spencer Deal with Clark (“Glass,” “Bizarre: The Al Yankovic Story”). The 12-year-old model of the character was launched because the son of Maximus’s previous flame Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and Lucius Verus, the previous Emperor of Rome. Lucius can also be the grandson of Richard Harris’ Marcus Aurelius, and can return in “Gladiator II,” with Mescal within the position.Which means the now 35-year-old Deal with Clark will clearly not be returning. What’s fascinating, although, is that Scott has additionally seemingly recast the youthful Lucius for flashback scenes.
