‘Gladiator 3’ already in works, say director and star

Ridley Scott’s long-awaited Gladiator sequel has not even hit US theaters yet, but the veteran director is already hard at work on a third installment. Scott and Paul Mescal have discussed a new direction for the plot that would not simply “go back to the arena as we know it”

Ridley Scott’s long-awaited Gladiator sequel has not even hit US theaters yet, but the veteran director is already hard at work on a third installment.

Gladiator II, which arrives in North American cinemas Friday, stars Irish actor Paul Mescal (Normal People) as Lucius, the son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus from the multiple Oscar-winning original.

A bloody, blockbuster epic of revenge, treachery and — yes — gladiators, it has drawn positive reviews and already hauled in a muscular $87 million at the global box office since opening in several countries last week.

“Given the performance in the rest of the world that we’ve seen yesterday, there’s certainly going to be a Gladiator III,” said Scott, in Los Angeles on Monday for the movie’s glitzy US premiere.

“Because it also becomes financial, and you’d be insane not to consider a third version,” said the British director of seminal films such as Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise.

The plot of Gladiator II was also “planned to leave it wide open to a sequel,” added Scott, a famously prolific filmmaker who is still directing roughly a film per year at the age of 86.

The second film opens with Lucius — sent into exile by his mother to avoid certain death in Rome — battling in vain to defend his adopted North African home city from the arrival of seemingly unstoppable Roman soldiers.