Just months after Gladiator won Best Picture at the Oscars, there was discussion about extending the Ridley Scott Roman epic with a prequel that would include the deceased Maximus (Oscar winner Russell Crowe) and detail the true parentage of Lucius (played in the original film by Spencer Treat Clark).
Gladiator II reparents Scott’s “return to form” after his previous movie, Napoleon (2023), a flops that received disappointing response from the critics.
While it’s his best work, the movie proves that he still has the ability to visually engage and excite audiences. What elevates Gladiator II in the cinematic arena is the ways its dialogue underpins its outrageous, border-line campy spectacle.
Executive producer Walter F. Parkes proposed another idea: a prequel to follow Lucius and then a sequel that focused on the resurrection of Maximus.
Then, in 2003, Scott suggested the “Gladiator” sequel would focus solely on Lucius with the idea to release the film in 2005. “It’s the next generation. Roman history is so exotic that any part of it is really fascinating,” Scott said.
Finding a screenwriter for the project was the most difficult part: “Writers were afraid to take it on.”
“I wasn’t aware that the other writers were afraid. Maybe if I did, I would have been afraid too,” David Scarpa, the credited screenwriter on “Gladiator II” (Peter Craig and Scarpa share a story credit), tells Gold Derby. “But I just sort of said yes, and then figured we figured that out as we go.”
That Lucius is Maximus’s secret son – an idea lightly suggested in the original film but never explicitly stated – was one of the ways Scarpa found his way into the script.
The original film’s script had several iconic lines of dialogue that are still repeated today – none more famous than when Maximus taunts a fevered crowd by shouting, “Are you not entertained?” Scarpa’s “Gladiator II” script does not repeat the catchphrase, nor any other famous lines from the film. Those hoping for a repeat of “I’m terribly vexed” will not find any vexing in the new film.
“There’s always a temptation to include callbacks like that. Luckily, Ridley doesn’t like doing that and he doesn’t like taking the easy road and doing the greatest hits album,” Scarpa says. “That’s fortunate because if you were to simply go back and sort of repeat catchphrases, you’re just doing it for the fans. It’s easy, but it’s just not earned. We were very focused just on telling the best possible story and making it work on its own terms, letting everything come organically.”
Besides, the original writers didn’t think they were writing catchphrases anyway. “They simply were trying to tell the best story and bring the character to life. And so that’s really what you want to do the second time around as well: tell the best story you can. Audiences know when you’re pandering to them in a lot of ways, and in a way, they respect you a little bit more if you don’t do that.”
Scarpa has worked with Scott on several projects, including “All the Money in the World” and last year’s “Napoleon.”
The screenwriter loves how decisive the 86-year-old filmmaker is in his choices, even if he can’t quite keep up with Scott’s prolific output. The director – still searching for his first-ever Oscar win after four nominations – has spoken already about the potential for “Gladiator III” and has several projects already lined up, including another film with Mescal and a biopic about the Bee Gees.
“He’s already sort of mapped it out in his own head?” Scarpa says of “Gladiator III. “Luckily I don’t work as hard as him, so I don’t have to sweat it quite as much. But I can assure you that it’s going to happen.”
Pressed for details on what “Gladiator III” might look like, Scarpa is loathe to spoil “Gladiator II.” But the writer says that unlike the first film, which “walled off” the world by killing Maximus and Commodus, “Gladiator II” leaves room for further exploration.
“It’s inevitably just like ‘The Godfather’ in a way. It does set up this question of, where is this guy gonna go throughout the rest of his life. Lucius is only just beginning.”
