Russell Crowe is beloved for his role as Maximus Decimus Meridius in 2000's Oscar-winning epic Gladiator. But the man himself apparently has no love for 2024's Gladiator II which introduced Paul Mescal as Maximus' illegitimate son with Connie Nielsen's Lucilla, AKA the true heir to the throne of Ceasar, telling Australian outlet Triple J that it's an "unfortunate example" of when sequels get it wrong.
"I think the recent sequel that, you know, we don't have to name out loud, is a really unfortunate example of even the people in that engine room not actually understanding what made the first one special," Crowe says, later making it clear that he's referring to Gladiator II. "It wasn't the pomp. It wasn't the circumstance. It wasn't the action. It was the moral core."
Crowe takes particular issue with the idea that Maximus would have fathered a child with Lucilla, saying he fought hard to avoid plotlines like that in the first film.
"The thing is, there was a daily fight to keep that moral core of the character. The amount of times they suggested sex scenes and stuff like that for Maximus, it's like, you're taking away his power," he explains. "What are you talking about? You're saying at the same time he had this relationship with his wife, he was fucking this other girl? What are you talking about? It's crazy."
I have to admit, I'm inclined to agree with Crowe that the plotline of Gladiator II does feel particularly contrived, and it fails to live up to the gravitas of the original film. It certainly hasn't earned the same mythic stature as its predecessor.
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