Russell Crowe hasn’t played Maximus in over 25 years, but he still swings a sword at bad storytelling like he’s back in ancient Rome. He’s still defending Maximus Decimus Meridius (a role for which he won a Best Actor Oscar in 2001) and the Gladiator franchise from creative choices he finds… questionable. In a new chat with Triple J, Crowe was blunt about his feelings towards Gladiator 2, released in November 2024.
“I think the recent sequel that, you know, we don’t have to name out loud, is a really unfortunate example of even the people in that engine room not actually understanding what made the first one special,” he said. He swears it wasn’t the spectacle or the arena carnage that hooked audiences worldwide. “It wasn’t the pomp. It wasn’t the circumstance. It wasn’t the action. It was the moral core.”
That moral core took work. According to Crowe, the studio tried pushing Maximus toward a fling that would have completely clashed with the grieving-husband arc that made him iconic. “There was a daily fight on that set. It was a daily fight to keep that moral core of the character,” he said. “So you’re saying at the same time he had this relationship with his wife, he was f***ing this other girl? What are you talking about? It’s crazy.”
Crowe fought. Maximus stayed loyal. And five Oscars followed.
Which is why a sequel that rewrites key character history gets under his skin. The decision to position Paul Mescal’s Lucius as Maximus’ illegitimate son? Crowe just can’t buy it. “Makes no sense to me,” he insists. His whole motivation in the first film is avenging his murdered wife and child — not juggling side romances like some toga-wearing soap-opera star.
Even without him, the sequel made money ($462 million worldwide), though reviews ranged from New York Times praise to Forbes calling it “a dreadful, pointless sequel.”
Crowe joked about fans confronting him in European restaurants asking what went wrong. “It’s like, ‘Hey it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it!’”
Ridley Scott already says a third movie is “in process.” Mescal even wants back in. But Russell Crowe will be watching Gladiator 3 from the afterlife, still six feet under, still yelling about Maximus’ moral compass.
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