Waiting for the long-awaited trailer of Gladiator 2which according to rumors could land in the coming days, the sequel to the classic directed by Ridley Scott promises to become one of the great titles of the end of 2024. Between blood and sand, some of the most celebrated characters from the original film return in this new installment, among which we find its protagonist.
From what we know so far, Lucio’s characternephew of Commodus, son of Lucilla and grandson of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, whom we already knew in Gladiator in its children’s version, will be the new protagonist of this story.
Although He was originally played by actor Spencer Treat Clark (Animal Kingdom, Agents of SHIELD.), Scott decided that this time it would be Paul Mescal (Unknown, Normal People) who got into his skin. A role for which, according to the American media, other names such as Austin Butler (Dune: Part Two) or Richard Madden (Game of Thrones).
Similarly, Lucilla, his mother in fiction, will also be back in this sequel. A character that he gave life to Connie Nielsen, actress also known for other works in Portraits of an obsession either Wonder Woman, who will be back to recover the love interest of Máximo Décimo Meridio (Russell Crowe) in Gladiator.
Other original characters Gladiator the one we will see in the Rome of the gladiators will be the Roman senator Gracchus. Behind this we found the actor at the time Derek Jacobi (Gosford Park), who will return to the same role almost 25 years later. In the original film, this man was one of the men loyal to Marcus Aurelius, but not so much his insane son Commodus, defecting to Maximus.
Who has finally been discarded, after sounding like one of the great cameos of this sequel, is the actor Djimon Hounsou, who will play Juba. The actor of Blood Diamond was who denied his participation in Gladiator 2.
New characters in ‘Gladiator 2’
To make up for the absence of Máximo (Russell Crowe) and Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), and get closer to an original cast that included such famous faces as Richard Harris, Oliver Reed and David Schofield, the film has signed Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger.
In the case of Pascalrumors about the first preview released exclusively during CinemaCon suggest that it will be one of the gladiators whom we can see on the arena of the Colosseum accompanying Lucio, who has decided to renounce all his privileges.
For its part, Denzel Washington would be the coach of the gladiators, while Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) and Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus) will play the Emperors Caracalla and Geta, respectively. In Hechinger’s case, this role was initially going to go to Barry Keoghan, but the actor Saltburn and Dunkirk had to resign at the last minute due to scheduling conflicts.
As happened in the original film with Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, Caracalla and Geta are figures that really existed in the Roman Empire of the 2nd and 3rd centuries after Christ, who co-ruled in the year 198 after the death of their father, causing a real struggle for power between the two.
Completing the cast are actors such as Tim McInnerny (like Thraex), Lee Charles (The Goth), Riana Duce (Hyacinthia), Chi Lewis-Parry (Phoebus) or Hadrian Howard (Agedilios), among many other characters who will roam the length and breadth of the Empire, where political intrigues and battles promise to leave us speechless again.
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