The actor has criticised the creative team behind the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic, saying it lacked the moral core that defined the original Oscar-winning film
Russell Crowe has said that the makers of Gladiator II did not “understand … what made that first one special”.
In interview excerpts posted on social media by Australian radio station Triple J, Crowe said that the Gladiator sequel, which starred Paul Mescal and was released in 2024, was let down by “the people in that engine room not actually understanding what made that first one special”.
He added: “It wasn’t the pomp. It wasn’t the circumstance. It wasn’t the action. It was the moral core.”
In the first Gladiator film, directed by Ridley Scott, Crowe played Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, who is forced to become a slave and who dies of his wounds at the end of the film. Released in 2000, Gladiator won the best picture Oscar, alongside Crowe’s win for best actor Oscar. In the sequel, also directed by Scott, Mescal plays Hanno, who is revealed to be Maximus’s son with his lover Lucilla (played by Connie Nielsen).
