Russell Crowe Slams 'Gladiator' Sequel, Says it Lacks a 'Moral Core'
Russell Crowe is not entertained. The star of the Best Picture-winning swords and sandals epic Gladiator recently spoke out about the sequel, Gladiator II, which came out last year. Crowe, who was not in the 2024 film as his character died at the conclusion of the 2000 original, had some harsh words.
“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 said in an interview with Australia’s Triple J. “It wasn’t the pomp. It wasn’t the circumstance. It wasn’t the action. It was the moral core.”
In Gladiator II, Paul Mescal stars as Lucius Verus Aurelius, a former prince who grew up to become an exiled warrior before making a return to Rome to fight in the Colosseum, where he battles against the machinations of two mad caesars and a conniving former slave named Macrinus (Denzel Washington.) Reviews for Gladiator II, which like the first film was directed by Ridley Scott, were mixed.
Russell Crowe Objected to the Reveal That Maximus Was Unfaithful to His Wife
Crowe's biggest problem with the new movie was that Lucius is revealed to be the illegitimate son of his character, Maximus. Considering that Maximus' driving force as a character was seeking revenge for his murdered wife and son, the idea that he would have been unfaithful, having an affair with Connie Nielsen's Lucilla, was offensive. Crowe even said he had to fight on the set of the first movie to prevent them from giving the grieving Maximus a sex scene.
Paramount
“It was a daily fight to keep that moral core of the character,” Crowe said. “The amount of times they suggested sex scenes and stuff like that for Maximus, it’s like you’re taking away his power. So 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.”
Crowe, whose Gladiator performance won him the Oscar for Best Actor, has said that nobody consulted him during the making of Gladiator II. Any objections he might have had to the reveal of Lucius's parenthood were never a factor.