Before the release ofGladiator II, there was much talk ofRussell Crowe’s possible inclusion in the sequel. It seems that at one point there was a scene written into an early draft of the script that would have included a “brief flashback” of Crowe’s Maximus, but it didn’t make it into the final script.
Speaking toThe Direct,Gladiator II’s co-story writer Peter Craig shared more information about exactly how the scene would have played out, but how, in the end, omitting it was the right thing to do. He said:
“There was a draft I had where I—So there was an idea that the Romans had that you could talk to your ancestors, and they have these underground catacombs where people’s urns and ashes and bones were all buried beneath the city. There had been a scene where once Lucius finds out that it’s his father, he goes down there and he finds his grave. And there was just going to be a really brief flashback with Russell.
I think they probably made the right decision not using it. But I was on that with Ridley [Scott] for a while, I actually left to do this show. And they, I sort of gave them a big menu of stuff, and they selected some things from it, and I think they left a lot of the right stuff off of it.”
‘Gladiator II’ in 3 Minutes Or Less
With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength to return the glory of Rome to its people.
Russell Crowe’s Maximus Was Originally to Return as a Ghost
Back in 2023, Ridley Scott revealeda very differentGladiatorsequelthat was originally on the cards and would have involved Crowe’s character coming back from the afterlife. During an interview with theReelBlend podcast, the director explained:
“Nick Cave wrote the script, but I had the idea. I knew how to bring him back through a portal, back to the real world. I’m not going tell you what it is, because somebody will steal it… I talked to Nick every other day for about a month as he was writing it. And so I said, ‘We can bring him back this way.’ And what I want to do is start the film in Styx, on the edge of the ocean, and you see him, this warrior, wandering in armor. Then, it’s Maximus wandering, looking for where he’s going to go next. That’s Scene One.”
In the long run, it was probably best that this almost Stephen King doesGladiatoridea was allowed to be put to rest, as it would potentially have derailed the more grounded story that we did get. WhileScott has been touting ideas for a possible third installmentof the epic franchise, whether any of them involve the Roman afterlife is a question to be answered another day.
Source:The Direct
Gladiator II
