New ‘Gladiator 2’ trailer reveals father of Paul Mescal’s Lucius
The new trailer for Ridley Scott‘s upcoming movie Gladiator 2 has revealed a significant twist regarding the identity of Paul Mescal’s character, Lucius.
The highly anticipated movie is the sequel to the Academy Award-winning movie, which starred Russell Crowe in 2000. In addition to Mescal, who stars in the lead role, Connie Nielsen returns from the original to reprise her role as Lucius’ mother, Lucilla. The film also features Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Denzel Washington, and Derek Jacobi.
Lucius is the nephew of Emperor Commodus, played by Joaquin Phoenix in the original movie, and Crowe’s Maximus was a father figure to him as a young child. Now, Lucius finds himself as the person responsible for saving the empire of Rome and to do this, he enters an arrangement of convenience with Washington’s character, Macrinus.
In the latest trailer, a seismic spoiler is provided regarding Lucius’ father. Nielsen’s character Lucilla tells her son in the trailer to follow in the footsteps of his late father, stating, “Take your father’s strength, his name was Maximus, and I see him in you.” In another part of the recently-released clip, Mescal stares at a wall which has “Maximus” carved on it, further highlighting his link to Crowe’s character.
This information adds another layer to the character of Lucius, whose father was never previously revealed in the first movie. However, Maximus and Lucilla did share a close bond.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mescal explained that Scott told him about the identity of Lucius’ father during their first meeting, recalling, “He mentioned it in the talk, but then it’s an affronting thing to see it written on the page, and [to have] that responsibility fall on your shoulders is interesting.”
Mescal claimed that his initial response to the significant news was to think, “holy shit”, but he didn’t want it to alter the way that he portrayed Lucius, who he insists is his own man rather than a carbon copy of Maximus.
The Aftersun star explained: “I kind of tried to park that to one side because ultimately, where Lucius is coming from at the start of the film, he has a very different journey than Maximus does. And I was hoping that whatever DNA and even just the physical gestures was going to be one part of, and a kind of small part of, the performance. But then what I tried to do is figure out exactly who Lucius was and where those differences lay between Lucius and Maximus.”
Scott has previously spoke in superlative terms about Mescal’s performance as Lucius. Despite it being the Irish actor’s first major blockbuster, the legendary director described him as “a special find” and said “he was absolutely perfect” for the character.
Will Ridley Scott make ‘Gladiator 3’?
Despite Gladiator 2 not arriving in cinemas until November 15th, Scott has already shared his ambitions to possibly make another movie.
“With that, I’m already toying with the idea of Gladiator 3. No, seriously! I’ve lit the fuse,” he said in a recent interview with Premiere. “The ending of Gladiator II is reminiscent of The Godfather, with Michael Corleone finding himself with a job he didn’t want, and wondering, ‘Now, Father, what do I do?’ So the next [film] will be about a man who doesn’t want to be where he is.”
The esteemed director has also previously labelled Gladiator 2 as “the best thing I’ve ever made”, which shows his immense pride about the project, and makes a third movie more plausible.
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