GLADIATOR Star Russell Crowe Breaks Silence on Ridley Scott’s GLADIATOR II (And He Wasn’t a Fan)

For obvious reasons – his character died in the 2000 film, for starters –Gladiator star Russell Crowe did not return as Maximus in Gladiator II. Last year, the Oscar winner said he would be willing to give the sequel a chance.

Well, he finally watched it and wasn’t too impressed. Speaking to triple j (via SFFGazette.com), Crowe shared his belief that filmmaker Sir Ridley Scott dropped the ball when it comes to the film which holds a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $462.2 million at the worldwide box office.

Crowe’s biggest complaint echoes what many critics have said: Scott sacrificed story to focus on flashy set pieces, like a sequence involving gladiators fighting sharks in the Colosseum.

“I think the recent sequel that, you know, we don’t need to name out loud, is a really unfortunate example of how even the people in that engine room don’t actually understand what made the first one special.” » he declared. “It wasn’t the pomp. It wasn’t the circumstances. It wasn’t the action. It was the moral core.”

Reflecting on his Gladiator experience, Crowe alluded to conflicts with the studio as they insisted on adding gratuitous sex scenes. “The thing is, there was a daily struggle on that set. It was a daily struggle to keep the moral core of the character. The number of times they suggested sex scenes and stuff like that for Maximus, it was like taking away his power.”

“So you’re saying that at the same time he was having this relationship with his wife, he was fucking this other girl? What are you talking about? That’s crazy,” »continued the actor. “Women in Europe, when this movie first started coming out, I was at a restaurant and they were coming up to me and saying, ‘What’s going on? It’s like, ‘Hey, it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it!'”

In Gladiator IIPaul Mescal took on the lead role of Lucius Verus, the grandson of the former emperor Marcus Aurelius. It was eventually revealed that Maximus, who fell in battle against the evil Commodus in the first film, was his father.

We talked about a third Gladiator movie, but there’s no indication that this is actually happening. The sequel didn’t enjoy the same award-winning success as its predecessor and seems to have been largely forgotten since its release last year.

Based on characters by David Franzoni and a story by Peter Craig and David Scarpa, Scott directed Gladiator II based on a screenplay by Scarpa. The cast includes Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi, with Connie Nielsen and Denzel Washington.

You can learn more about Crowe in the player below.