Russell Crowe says ‘Gladiator II’ failed because it lacked the ‘moral core’ of the first film
Russell Crowe talks about his career-defining role and why he thinks attempts to replicate the magic of film in the sequel have failed.
During a panel at the Taormina Film Festival, the 62-year-old actor spoke about the sequel to “Gladiator,” noting that he believes it failed because it lost the “moral core” of the original 2000 film, per Variety.
“When we were shooting that film, there was a lot of pressure. The studio, the producers [thought] there should be sex between Maximus and the female characters. I kept going back,” he said about the first film, “This is the story of a man who was avenging the death of his wife and child. There will not be a moment in that journey where he stops and sleeps with someone. It doesn’t make sense because that ruins the trip.”
He explained that director Ridley Scott agreed with him that an intimate scene between him and Connie Nielsen would take away the “emotional core” of the film and take it out of the movie.
The “Les Misérables” star went on to say that he found it interesting for executives to “destroy that moral institution” in the 2024 sequel.
“It’s very interesting because the second film didn’t take the same place that the first film did. That was 20 years later,” he said. “If you ask how much change there was in the value of the dollar, they failed, they failed because they didn’t understand why. [the original movie] it was successful – it had moral content. “
The original film brought in about $465.5 million at the global box office in 2000, and the second earned about $462.1 million in 2024, but adjusted for inflation, the box office number for the first film would have been much higher.
Crowe explained that although the studio did not know why the film was a success, it noticed that “from the second week it was released worldwide, there were always more women in theaters than men.”
“You think that apart from the movie ‘Gladiator’ it’s a men’s movie, but if it was a men’s movie it would be about revenge but it’s not revenge, it’s a women’s movie because it’s about revenge,” he explained. “[‘Gladiator’] it was successful because it had a moral context. In some way, we all want to be that guy who can stay so strong, if you’re a man. And if you’re a woman, we all want a man to love us that way.”
The original film followed Crowe as Maximus, a once powerful general who is sold into slavery and trained as a gladiator after the emperor’s son becomes jealous of him and kills his family.
It went on to become the second highest-grossing film of 2000 and won five Academy Awards, including best picture and best actor for Crowe.
The second film stars Paul Mescal as Lucius, son of Maximus, who returns to Rome as a prisoner and is trained as a gladiator by Macrinus, a former slave played by Denzel Washington, who plans to overthrow the twin emperors.
“All we had to do was get dressed and start talking,” Washington said during a screening of the film in Los Angeles in October 2024. “I’m serious. What Ridley did, which was great, was he built Rome … When we walked around, you were in Rome. [with] 10,000 more with horses. I mean, it was pretend, it was a game.”
