{"id":914267,"date":"2026-10-03T04:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T04:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914267\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T04:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T04:48:15","slug":"russell-crowe-gladiator-sequel-actor-reveals-dumb-gladiator-ii-idea-he-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914267\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell Crowe Gladiator sequel: Actor reveals \u2018dumb\u2019 Gladiator II idea he rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russell Crowe<\/a> has revealed the \u201cpretty dumb\u201d Gladiator sequel<\/a> script he turned down soon after the film became a box-office success.<\/p>\n

Crowe, 62, told ScreenRant<\/a> he was approached for a second film almost immediately after the original\u2019s release in May 2000.<\/p>\n

\"Russell<\/p>\n

Crowe said he turned down a \u201cdumb\u201d Gladiator sequel.\u00a0United International Pictures<\/p>\n

\u201cThe solution that they originally came to me with was pretty dumb,\u201d he said, explaining this was after the film became a hit but before its Academy Award<\/a> wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018Right, we\u2019ve gotta grab this. So here\u2019s the thing. Number 2 starts with, they carry you into a cave, right, they put some medicine on you, slide a rock over the thing and three days later you\u2019re healthy\u2019,\u201d Crowe explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I was like, that\u2019s a different book. What are we doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n

Director Ridley Scott did eventually create a Gladiator sequel, Gladiator II<\/a>, starring Paul Mescal<\/a> and released in late 2024.<\/p>\n

Crowe was not involved in the movie, and following its release he made clear he wasn\u2019t a huge fan.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] is a really unfortunate example of the people in that engine room [the filmmakers] not actually understanding what made the first one special,\u201d Crowe said.<\/p>\n

He said the original film\u2019s success stemmed largely from the unimpeachable virtue of its main protagonist, rather than the big-budget special effects in its sequel.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the pomp, it wasn\u2019t the circumstance, it wasn\u2019t the action \u2013 it was the moral core,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

So many decades into his career, Crowe has still not made a movie sequel, telling ScreenRant it started as a conscious decision, \u201cbecause I grew up in an era where a sequel was always a really bad version of the first one\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Russell<\/p>\n

Crowe became one of Hollywood\u2019s biggest stars without ever making a film sequel.\u00a0Getty Images\/Frazer Harrison<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s since changed dramatically, where some of the sequels have gone on to be iconic or legendary over and above the original films,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m not as closed to it now as I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowe said he\u2019d been approached over reprising other characters over the years, including Gabriele Amorth from The Pope\u2019s Exorcist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain characters that you play that so very definitely could have bigger lives and more narratives, so you may get to see me do a sequel, we\u2019ll see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell Crowe has revealed the \u201cpretty dumb\u201d Gladiator sequel script he turned down soon after the film became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-914267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}