Skip to main content

Ridley Scott is already thinking about what ‘Gladiator 3’ could look like

Ridley Scott is very confident in the job he did directing Gladiator 2.

Paul Mescal in Gladiator II.
Universal

Few directors are more active than Ridley Scott. The prolific director is currently promoting Gladiator II, his decades-later sequel to the Oscar-winning epic starring Russell Crowe. Scott, who has already made classic movies like Alien and Blade Runner, is not content to rest on all of the success that he has accumulated over his life, though. Instead, he’s already thinking about what a third Gladiator movie might look like. In a recent interview with Premiere Magazine, which was translated from French, Scott explained what he was envisioning for a third film.

“With that, I’m already playing with the idea of Gladiator 3,” he explained. “No, seriously! I lit the wick… The end of Gladiator II evokes that of The Godfather, with Michael Corleone who finds himself with a job he did not want, and who wonders, ‘and now, Father, what am I doing?’ The next [film] will therefore be about a man who does not want to be where he is.”

Recommended Videos

Scott has been pretty high on the job he did on Gladiator II, saying it was one of the best things he ever made. Given that ringing endorsement, it’s no wonder why he might be interested in coming back for more.

For his part, star Paul Mescal also said he would be happy to return to his character, assuming that there was a good story to be told.

“Yes, Ridley told me about it, but only yesterday,” he said. “So I’m waiting to see what happens, but I’m interested, of course. But we can’t rush anything: the story has to hold together.”

Gladiator II took 24 years, but Gladiator 3 may be coming a lot sooner.

Joe Allen
Contributor
Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…
What do the SAG and DGA nominations mean for the Oscars?
'Wicked' led the SAG nominations, but was snubbed by the DGAs
Ralph Fiennes in Conclave.

Two of the most high-profile awards bodies in Oscars season unveiled their nominees today, giving us a firmer sense of which movies are likely to become Oscar frontrunners. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards are an actor-oriented ceremony, but their membership has major overlap with the Academy. The Directors Guild Awards (DGAs), meanwhile, give us a sense of which directors might wind up nominated for Best Director.

The SAG nominations turned out to be particularly good for Wicked, which received nominations for three of its actors and its ensemble and its stunt performers for a total of five nominations. A Complete Unknown was just behind it with four, including an ensemble nod and three acting nods, and Anora, Conclave, and Emilia Perez rounded out the best ensemble lineup.

Read more
What do the 2025 Golden Globe results mean for the Oscars?
The Golden Globes have chosen their winners, and picked a pretty surprising slate
Selena Gomez in Emilia Perez

The Golden Globes have traditionally been the kick-off for each year's Oscar season, and 2025 is looking to be no different. The awards ceremony awarded its top honors to Emilia Perez and The Brutalist, but also spread some love around to A Real Pain and Conclave, leaving many wondering what these results might portend for the Oscars themselves.

While the Globes traditionally serve as a launch point for awards season, they have not always been predictive of who would get nominated or win at the Oscars. The membership of the Golden Globes is composed of several hundred foreign journalists and has no overlap with Academy membership, which is thousands of people who work in the industry.

Read more
What we know about Robert De Niro’s Zero Day Netflix series so far
Zero Day is a political thriller series, but it's unclear what it's actually about
Robert De Niro on the red carpet at a Comedy Central roast.

TV's golden era may be behind us, but that doesn't mean that there isn't plenty of interesting stuff coming down the pike on the small screen. One remnant from TV's golden era, though, is the idea that movie stars can jump back and forth between TV and film without hurting their reputations, and what better evidence is there of that than the fact that Robert De Niro is about to star in his first-ever TV series. De Niro may not be as relevant as he was when winning two Academy Awards for The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull, but the iconic Hollywood figure is synonymous with quality storytelling.

Zero Day follows De Niro as a former president named George Mullen who comes out of retirement to "lead a commission tasked with investigating a potential world crisis," according to Netflix. Here's everything we know about the Zero Day Netflix series.
What is Zero Day actually about?
The plot specifics for Zero Day are still a little bit up in the air, but we do have a logline that really asks more questions than it answers:

Read more