24 years after the original film, Paramount Pictures finally unveiled the first trailer for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 on Tuesday, just months ahead of its November release date.
The trailer kicks off with Paul Mescal’s Lucius Verus calling back to the first film, with Denzel Washington’s Macrinus pulling the strings. We get a good look at Pedro Pascal as Marcus Acacius, too, and the Colosseum in all its glory. There’s plenty of action, with large-scale battles and arena fights. The trailer teases a fight between Lucius and a gladiator riding a rhino, and Marcus Acacius taking on a handful of enemies on his own. The clip ends on a fight between Lucius and Marcus Acacius, with Rome the setting of an uprising.
It’s the most substantial look we’ve gotten at the long-awaited sequel, following a batch of photos that debuted in Vanity Fair earlier this month. Prior to that, only attendees of CinemaCon got a peek at a few minutes of action-packed footage behind closed doors in April (read IGN’s breakdown of the footage here).
Gladiator 2 features a star-studded new cast including Paul Mescal as Lucius Verus, Pedro Pascal as Marcus Acacius, Denzel Washington as Macrinus, and Joseph Quinn as Geta, with Connie Nielsen returning as Lucilla, the mother of Lucius. One star we know won’t be returning, however, is the original’s Russell Crowe, who’s insisted that the sequel “has nothing to do with me” and his deceased character Maximus.
Gladiator 2 is set several years after the events of the first film, and will find an all-grown-up Lucius as he’s forced into slavery, despite being the former heir to the Roman Empire. Not unlike Maximus, we’ll see him enter hit the sandy arena as a gladiator as he opposes the rule of Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and Geta.
Gladiator 2 will hit theaters on November 22 (going head-to-head with Wicked, no less).
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
