You crazy for this one, Ridley. Yep, despite “Gladiator II” not coming out in theaters for two months and reportedly costing a super mint, filmmaker Ridley Scott already intends to make a “Gladiator III” as a trilogy caper. In a new magazine interview with France’s Premiere, Scott says he’s already dreaming up a third ‘Gladiator’ movie with dimensions of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Godfather” trilogy.
READ MORE: ‘Gladiator 2’ Budget Balloons To $310 Million Amid Reports Of “Runaway” Spending [Report]
“With that, I’m already playing with the idea of ‘Gladiator III,’” he admitted. “No, seriously! I lit the fuse… The ending of ‘Gladiator II’ evokes that of ‘The Godfather,’ with Michael Corleone finding himself with a job he didn’t want and wondering, ‘And now, Father, What am I doing?’ So, the next [film] will be about a man who doesn’t want to be where he is.”
This means Paul Mescal will return as Lucius Verus and won’t die as Russell Crowe did in the original Gladiator. Mescal confirmed that in a follow-up interview with the magazine, admitting that Scott had already approached him with the idea.
“Yes, Ridley spoke to me about it, but only yesterday!” he shared. “So I’m waiting to see what will happen, but it interests me, of course. But we must not rush anything: the story must hold together.”
“Gladiator II” will also need to be a big hit at the box office to remain as a viable threequel. Now, that already seems likely; it’s one of the year’s most anticipated movies, but it’s already rumored that the film’s budget ballooned to $310 million. Those are superhero-sized numbers, bigger than even most Marvel movies, so you’re looking at a movie that likely needs to hit around $600-$700 million, conservatively, in order to go ahead with a third movie.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Total Film, the “Blade Runner” filmmaker said there was one non-negotiable requirement for his return to the “Gladiator” franchise: it had to be set in Rome again.
“You go through all the questions. Can I go back to Rome? Can I go into the Colosseum again? Because we did that with Russell [Crowe]. And the answer is: you better be in the Colosseum because it’s called Gladiator. I don’t know how you do it without going back into the Colosseum. Otherwise, there’s no point in doing it.”
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“Gladiator II” also stars Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Connie Nielsen, and Denzel Washington and hits theaters on November 15. For Scott’s sake and his age, let’s hope he doesn’t have to wait another 24 years for another “Gladiator” film because, frankly, by then, the 86-year-old filmmaker will likely not be alive.