Why has Gladiator 2 taken so long to get made?

By the time Gladiator 2 arrives in UK cinemas in November, it will be 8,964 days since the first film had its world premiere. That's the sort of lengthy gap that truly earns the moniker of "legacy sequel" and speaks to the complicated journey that has brought Ridley Scott to the gates of the Roman Colosseum once again.

But why has that journey extended so far, stretching for more than 20 years? It has a lot to do with creative differences, a little to do with resurrection and purgatory, and a lot to do with the insatiable work ethic of Ridley Scott.

It certainly wasn't to do with a lack of appetite for a follow-up to a film that won five Oscars and grossed $465m (£357m) worldwide, finishing second behind Mission: Impossible 2 at the year's box office. As soon as the summer of 2001, original screenwriter David Franzoni was reportedly in talks to write another movie — either a sequel or, given the fate of Russell Crowe's character, more likely a prequel.

Behind the scenes, this was something of a problem. Russell Crowe was keen to return, which would require some sort of fantastical intervention, while the studio were aiming for a story that would primarily focus on Lucius — son of Maximus and Connie Nielsen's Lucilla. In 2003, Scott announced that the script for a Lucius-centric sequel was complete.

Then, musician Nick Cave entered the fray. He was commissioned to write a script and promptly put together a truly unhinged story under the working title Christ Killer. The idea focused around the Roman gods resurrecting Maximus as an immortal warrior, tasked with finding and killing Jesus Christ. We would then see Maximus throughout history, including the Second World War, the Crusades, and the modern day.

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This script — perhaps unsurprisingly — never got very far, but the whole project got a massive kick in the teeth when DreamWorks sold its entire live-action library to Paramount Pictures in 2006. Everything went quiet until the mid-2010s, when Scott announced in 2017 that he was in talks with Crowe for a return to the Colosseum, having finally resolved how he would bring Maximus back.

In 2018, Paramount announced that the project was officially in development, with Scott on board to return as director. The story was due to take place 25-30 years after the original and would focus on Lucius. Sorry Russell. By 2021, Scott was making positive noises about working on Gladiator 2 as soon as he was done with another historical epic: Napoleon. The project was simply waiting for a gap in Scott's hectic schedule.

The director enlisted writer David Scarpa, who worked with the director on both Napoleon and All the Money in the World, to help get the script into shape. In the summer of 2023, Scott finally began filming on the Gladiator sequel, with Paul Mescal in the lead role of Lucius. He had amassed a terrific ensemble around him, with Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, and Joseph Quinn present alongside the returning Connie Nielsen.

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That didn't mean Gladiator 2 was out of the woods and on the way to success. In June 2023, six crew members were injured in a fireball on the set in Morocco. The same summer, everything had to shut down as a result of strike action by the Screen Actors Guild. It wasn't until the end of 2023 that cameras were able to roll again.

Now, though, Gladiator 2 is in the can and, if the first reactions are anything to go by, this could match its predecessor as a big player in the Oscars race. Either way, the film is definitely due to be among the most exciting blockbusters of the autumn and winter, drawing in plenty of box office dollars for those who are nostalgic for Scott's version of Ancient Rome.

It's just a shame we don't get to see an immortal Maximus fighting a load of Nazis. I guess you can't have everything.

Gladiator 2 is in UK cinemas from 15 November.