Ridley Scott has a plan for a Gladiator sequel: "I know how to bring him back"
Wait, isn't Maximus dead?
And now, in the latest in a series of 'movie sequels you never thought could happen because the main character is dead' news, Ridley Scott says he has an idea for Gladiator 2.
Yep, the director told Entertainment Weekly this week that he had a plan for a sequel to the 2000 Oscar-winning historical epic starring Russell Crowe.
But more than that, the way he's talking makes it sound like he actually wants to bring Maximus Decimus Meridius, (commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius) back from the dead.
“I know how to bring him back,” Scott said. “I was having this talk with the studio – ‘but he’s dead.’ But there is a way of bringing him back. Whether it will happen I don’t know. Gladiator was 2000, so Russell’s changed a little bit. He’s doing something right now but I’m trying to get him back down here.”
"Back down here" sounds like Scott wants to bring Maximus kicking and screaming back from the dead, a suggestion that isn't quite as weird as it sounds. There have long been rumours of a Gladiator sequel; singer Nick Cave (Nick Cave!) was even apparently approached to write a script by Crowe about Maximus in the afterlife.
And given that Scott is still working with Tom Hardy on trippy historical drama Taboo, Gladiator 2 isn't quite as far-fetched as it first appears.
