Russell Crowe Shreds Gladiator II For Maximus Implications

Russell Crowe might have won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Maximus in Ridley Scott’s 2000 smash Gladiator, but his experience with the film’s sequel ― released some 24 years later ― was considerably different.

In a clip from an interview with Australian radio station Triple J that was shared on social media Monday, the actor had a less-than-positive take on 2024’s Gladiator II, which starred Paul Mescal and was also directed by Scott.

“The recent sequel that we don’t have to name out loud is a really good example of, even the people in that engine room not actually understanding what made that first one special,” Crowe said in the clip. “It wasn’t the pomp. It wasn’t the circumstance. It wasn’t the action. It was the moral core.”

Regarding the original film, he added, “The thing is, there was a daily fight on that set. It was a daily fight to keep that moral core of the character. The amount of times that they suggested sex scenes and stuff like that for Maximus — it’s like, you’re taking away his power.”

Crowe didn’t film any new scenes for Gladiator II, as Maximus was killed at the conclusion of the first movie. The character, however, briefly appears in several flashback sequences.

The protagonist of Gladiator II is Lucius (played by Mescal), who is revealed to be the son of Maximus and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, reprising her role from the first film).

Given that Maximus spends much of Gladiator seeking vengeance for the murder of his wife and son, Crowe believes the sequel’s implication that his character and Lucilla had a secret romance that resulted in a child was a misstep.

“So you’re saying at the same time he had this relationship with his wife, he was fucking this other girl?” he said. “What are you talking about? It’s crazy.”

Despite mixed reviews, Gladiator II was a box office smash, raking in a reported $462 million worldwide. It also helped cement Mescal, who is seen as an early awards season frontrunner this year for his portrayal of William Shakespeare in Hamnet, as a rising star.

Crowe has been critical of Gladiator II on a number of occasions prior to his interview with Triple J. Appearing at the Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last year, he argued that the new film’s creative team “should be fucking paying me for the amount of questions I am asked about a film I am not even in.”

“It has nothing to do with me. In that world, I am dead. Six feet under,” he said, per Variety. “But I do admit to a certain tinge of jealousy, because it reminds me of when I was younger and what it meant for me, in my life.”

In his Triple J chat, he acknowledged hearing complaints about the sequel from longtime Gladiator fans who assumed he was somehow involved in the new film’s production.

“The women in Europe, when that movie started coming out, I would be at a restaurant, and they’d come talk to me [and complain],” Crowe quipped. “It’s like, ‘Hey, it wasn’t me! I didn’t do it.’”