Gladiator 2 is Coming: Seriously?

It almost sounds as though Gladiator 2, which is apparently going to happen, is going to travel into the realm of fantasy, which sounds like a very poor way to pay homage to the first movie that was a visual masterpiece even if it was fraught with historical inaccuracies according to experts. A lot of folks might wonder how I could possibly know that, but at the risk of sounding snarky, I can read, and historical experts are a little more trustworthy than Hollywood directors more often than not since the latter are usually using whatever they can to make a movie look and sound good. And to be fair, it works like a charm since a lot of people that don’t know that much about history will buy nearly everything they see hook, line, and sinker. Ridley Scott was likely counting on this since even he had to know that a lot of what he put into the first movie didn’t really mix entirely. But it looked cool and created a great movie, much as many action movies set in a historical period do. That’s kind of all that matters.

That’s why thinking that a second movie dipping into the realm of fantasy shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it kind of is all the same since the first movie was still trying to imply that it was following history. Bringing in Chris Hemsworth as Maximus’ son (yes, his son) is something that stands out like a sunflower in a field of dandelions. The first movie might have been a mix and match history lesson of sorts, but bringing people back from the dead, and allowing them to grow to manhood, is something entirely different. But it sounds as though Ridley Scott is prepped for it all the same and will be moving full steam ahead when the time comes. Anyone that wants to shake their head and wonder what in the hell is going to happen is free to do so. 

Plus, one has to wonder what the second movie would be about since Maximus is dead, Commodus is dead, and Rome is likely to fall at some point, so thinking about what might happen is kind of tough. But one can guess that if Scott has Hemsworth as his lead it’s bound to happen that he’ll make something that could be entertaining. The only problem with this is that trying to wrap my head around this is that it’s too likely to become another story about immortals. While that normally wouldn’t be an issue, it’s still something that doesn’t appear to fit too well with the first movie since like it or not, there was nothing overtly supernatural about the first movie, and if any arguments to the contrary are thinner than saturated rice paper in a rainstorm. One can easily think that Ridley Scott is the kind of person that knows what he’s doing most times since he has given us several iconic movies over the years and isn’t someone that misses all that often, but this is one of those times when someone might have to ask the guy what he was possibly thinking when it came to entertaining this idea. 

The revelation that this isn’t a new idea is also somewhat jarring since it means that he’s been entertaining this line of thinking for a while, and that’s all sorts of frustrating since there are certain movies that are better off not having a sequel or a reboot or a remake, and this is one of them. The story was simple enough from the beginning to end, a high-ranking general of the Roman army was betrayed after the spoiled son of the emperor killed his father and took his spot as emperor, then betrayed Maximus when he wouldn’t swear his fealty on the spot. Commodus then had Maximus’ family killed, which kind of ruins this whole thought process until one gets to the fantastical aspect of it, and to top it off, Maximus became a slave, then a gladiator, and then he killed Commodus after all was said and done before he died, in turn, thanks to a bit of treachery on Commodus’ part. that’s pretty much the size of it, and the reason why Gladiator was a good one-off movie. 

Bringing it back for a sequel sounds a bit ridiculous, not to mention that while it won’t ruin the first movie, it definitely is bound to confuse the hell out of those that love to hold onto the idea of a good movie, even if those that love to see sequels emerge no matter how inane they are might cheer and have a good old time with it. There are times when sequels really aren’t needed, no matter how badly someone might want to see it or push an idea for one.