‘Gladiator II’: Russell Crowe Slams Ridley Scott’s Historical Epic Sequel!!

The one thing you can say about Russell Crowe is that he’s not shy in letting his feelings known. He’s already publicly called out Gladiator II for lacking that intangible quality that made his Oscar-winning Gladiator such a success, but he’s not letting sleeping dogs lie and he’s now doubled down on his criticism of Ridley Scott‘s long-awaited sequel.

Speaking at the Taormina Film Festival, Crowe said he believes Gladiator II struggled because the filmmakers didn’t understand the “moral core” that made the first movie work. Crowe, who did not return for the sequel, argued that Maximus’s story was so powerful because it was built around his devotion to his murdered wife and child.

“I just kept pushing back,” Crowe said, recalling arguments during production on the original film. “I said, ‘This is a story about a man who’s avenging the death of his wife and his child. There cannot be a moment on that journey where he stops and has sex with somebody. It doesn’t make any sense… that destroys the journey’.”

Crowe said the studio fought him on that point during the making of Gladiator, but Scott ultimately backed his instincts. “They fought me, they sent me letters about it and everything, and I just stuck to my guns. Luckily for me, Ridley […] he agreed with me back then, and that that was the moral core of the film,” he said, before adding:

“So for them, in a second movie to destroy that moral centre, it’s very interesting because the second movie barely took the same box office that the first movie took but that’s 20 years later. And when you apply how much of a change there’s been on the value of a dollar, they failed, and they failed because they didn’t understand why it was successful, because it had a moral core.”

Was ‘Gladiator II’ a Flop?

The original Gladiator was a massive critical and commercial success, winning five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe. It grossed $465.5 million worldwide across all releases, including $187.7 million domestically and $277.8 million internationally, against a reported budget of $103 million.

Gladiator II, released in 2024, followed Lucius, the grown-up son of Lucilla, as he was forced into the Colosseum and pulled into the future of Rome. The sequel grossed $462.2 million worldwide, including $172.4 million domestically and $289.7 million internationally, against a reported production budget of $250 million.

The cast of Gladiator II includes Paul Mescal (Aftersun) as Lucius, Denzel Washington (Training Day) as Macrinus, Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us) as Marcus Acacius, Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) as Emperor Geta, Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus) as Emperor Caracalla, Connie Nielsen (Wonder Woman) as Lucilla, and Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius) as Senator Gracchus.