Ridley Scott reveals Russell Crowe’s initial plans for ‘Gladiator II’

Russell Crowe had some creative plans for Gladiator II, Ridley Scott shared.

Although the Oscar-winning lead of 2000’s Gladiator does not appear in the film’s follow-up, he did make his maximum effort to get into the project.

According to the director of Gladiator II, Ridley Scott, Crowe had plans to bring his character of Maximus, the bold Colosseum fighter who dies at the end of the original hit, back from the dead.

“Russell and I had a go at it around 18 years ago,” Scott shared with People in a recent interview.

“I had Nick Cave writing the script and I kept saying [to Russell], ‘But you’re dead.’ And he said, ‘I know I’m dead. And I want to come back from the dead.'”

In 2018, a BBC article revealed that musician Nick Cave was commissioned by Russell Crowe to write a sequel to Gladiator, despite Maximus' death at the end of the original film.

Crowe reportedly told Cave to “sort [his death] out” for the follow-up.

Cave’s unused script imagined Maximus in a purgatory-like realm inhabited by Roman gods. The gods enlisted Maximus for a revenge mission against another deity, offering him a chance to reunite with his late family. The storyline spiraled across time and dimensions, showing Maximus battling in the Crusades, World Wars, and even Vietnam after being brought back to life.

However, Crowe’s reaction to the script was blunt. “Don’t like it, mate,” he reportedly told Cave. Reflecting on the project, Cave admitted, “I enjoyed writing it very much because I knew on every level that it was never going to get made.”

Interestingly, the unused sequel also included a grown-up Lucius as an antagonist.

Director Ridley Scott also entertained ideas for Maximus’ return, describing a concept involving a "portal" that would bring Maximus back to life through the spirit of a dying warrior.

“The only way of doing it was to go to another battle, and through a dying warrior, he comes back into the spirit of the warrior. So that’s his portal,” Scott explained.

But the sequel itself never came to life.