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.”
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.
