“An unfortunate example…” Russell Crowe murders Gladiator 2

The legendary Maximus is not kind to the sequel by Ridley Scott.

Thumbs down!

If Gladiator 2 had a nice run at the box office last year, with almost $500 million in worldwide revenue, Russell Crowe did not appreciate it.

On Australian radio Triple J, the Oscar-winning actor shared his deep disappointment with this sequel directed by Ridley Scott. And he doesn’t mince his words:

“I think this sequel – which we don’t even need to name – is a really unfortunate example of people not understanding what made the first game so special. It wasn’t the decorum, or the spectacle, or the action. It was its moral heart.”

Russell Crowe, crowned best actor at the Oscars for his role as Maximus in 2000, recalls that he fought every day of filming to preserve this moral compass. A permanent struggle against creative proposals which, according to him, would have weakened his character.

“Every day, I had to defend this moral heart. I was constantly offered sex scenes for Maximus. But that would have taken away his strength! They wanted me to say that at the same time that he loved his wife, he was sleeping with another? That would have made no sense…”

For Crowe, the very essence of Gladiator is based on the murder of Maximus’ wife and son, the driving force behind his entire story. Seeing him involved in other relationships would have betrayed his absolute loyalty and his narrative arc.

However, this is precisely what Gladiator 2 comes to shake up: the film reveals that Maximus had a past affair with Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), from whom Lucius – played by Paul Mescal – was born. A rewrite which, according to Russell Crowe, damages the moral code of the character and therefore the soul of the original film.

Before the release of Gladiator 2 in November 2024, Crowe had already confided that Ridley Scott and his team had never consulted him. If they had, he probably would have protested against this twist which makes Lucius the hidden son of Maximus. At the Karlovy Vary Festival, Crowe even uttered a rant: “They should pay me for the number of questions I get asked about a movie I’m not even in. It has nothing to do with me. In this universe, I’m dead. Buried. But I admit to a little pang of jealousy, because it reminds me of what all this meant to me when I was young.“

Maximus still standing tall… even 25 years later.