In other words, the Roman military’s previous actions must have led Lucius to living in exile in a remote North African outpost. Then decades later, the Roman military rolls up again and kills his family while enslaving him. So yes, he has plenty of reason to despise the Roman legions, and perhaps Acacius more than any other member of them. The Gladiator II trailer shows Mescal fantasizing about killing Pascal in particular.
… And yet, if you keep watching, it becomes clear Acacius is not the pure model of corruption and cunning that Commodus represented in the original movie. The way Pascal intones, “I claim this city for the glory of Rome” as his men descend on Lucius’ hometown has an air of resignation to it. Later it appears he says, “I don’t fight for power, I fight to free Rome from men like him.” If that is indeed Pascal talking, he seems to be organizing or instigating an insurrection against the film’s actual Roman emperors in the film, brothers Caracalla and Geta (Fred Hechinger and Joseph Quinn). And it is definitely Pascal’s general threatening one of his emperors later in the trailer when he says, “Everything is forgotten in time. Empires fall and so do emperors.”
At a glance, it would seem that while the film and Rome itself seem eager to put Lucius and Acacius on a collision course, the pair actually share the same goals: ending the current decadence and excesses of Rome. For Lucius it might be out of revenge, but for Acacius it could prove something more complex and interesting. Consider that even in ancient Rome, citizens grappled with the ugly legacy and downsides of imperialism. Roman historian Tacitus famously said, “They create desolation and call it peace” about the empire’s conquests more than a hundred years before Gladiator II is set.
It would seem Pedro Pascal plays an antagonist who is only too aware of the sins found in the glory of Rome. If so, when Acacius is inevitably forced to cross swords with Lucius, it will be less a moment of anticipation than one of dread.
Gladiator II opens on Nov. 22.