Actor Barry Keogan, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the 2023 competition, is the latest to join the cast of "Gladiator 2" to join teammate Paul Mescal, who was also nominated for the Best Actor Oscar in the race that ended last week with his performance in "Aftersun (2).

Mescal's professional commitments prevented filming from starting at the beginning of the year, only to be delayed for several months, he said at the 76th BAFTA Awards ceremonies.

Milestone

Ridley Scott's 2000 "The Gladiator" is one of the hallmarks of world cinema, for its creativity and ability to restore the atmosphere of ancient Rome, at a time when critics believed that films about warriors in ancient Rome reached their peak with films such as Ben-Hur (1959) and Spartacus (1960).

"The Gladiator" tells the historical fictional story of Maximus, played by Australian actor Russell Crowe, a Roman general who became the victim of a coup d'état by Tsar Marcus Aurelius' son, Commodus, played by Joaquin Phoenix.

Maximus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to be a gladiator slave in Rome, while Commodus orders the execution of Maximus' wife and child. Maximus uses his combat training and military experience to quickly rise through the ranks of Rome's fiercest gladiators, eventually becoming a symbol of hope for Rome's persecuted citizens and deciding to confront Emperor Commodus.

The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, five of which it received. It was also a huge success at the box office, with revenues exceeding half a billion dollars while its production cost did not exceed 100 million.

"The Gladiator" ended in a decisive duel between the new emperor and Maximus, but Ridley Scott came more than 20 years later to say there was a rest of the story.

Denzel Washington

Ridley Scott's first surprise is to transfer the championship to Mescal, who plays the nephew of the emperor who loved his mother's brother but was fascinated by Maximus after seeing him in the famous collisium "Coliseum" in Rome, so the young man decides to give up his order in inheriting the throne of the Roman Empire and pursues wrestling like Maximus.

The film will be released in full version on February 24, 2024.

American actor Denzel Washington participates in the new part to embody the role of Maximus, which was previously played by Russell Crowe, and was the hero of the work, but Maximus in the next part - according to the scenario - will turn into a supporting role played by Washington instead of Crowe.

The collaboration between Washington and Scott comes after nearly 16 years of the pair working together on the two-time nominated 2007 film American Gangster, which starred Crow, Idris Elba and Josh Brolin.

Scott's great success in creating a masterpiece like "The Gladiator" was no stranger to him, as he is a prolific filmmaker and has made many successful works such as "Alien" (1979), "Blade" Runner (1982), "Thelma & Louise" (1991) and "Black Hawk Down" (2001).

David Scarpa wrote the screenplay for Gladiator 2 and previously collaborated with Scott as a writer on the 2017 film All the Money in the World.

Among the main crew members who worked on the original "Gladiator" are the new experience with Scott production designer Arthur Max and fashion designer Janty Yates, as well as cinematographer Dariusz Volsky.