Seventeen years ago, Gladiator debuted to glowing critical praise and became one of the highest grossing films of 2000. It went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe. And, historical accuracy aside, it is one of the greatest movies of the 21st Century and among director Ridley Scott's finest films. Despite this incredible success, it remains a stand-alone movie in an industry that will make a sequel out of literally anything as long as people will give them money. This is mostly because the film's main character dies at the end of Gladiator. But, Scott is trying to change all that.
As Scott said during an interview at SXSW this weekend, he's trying to make a Gladiator sequel, with its dead main character.
"I know how to bring him back," Scott said. "I was having this talk with the studio—'but he's dead.' But there is a way of bringing him back. Whether it will happen I don't know. Gladiator was 2000, so Russell's changed a little bit. He's doing something right now but I'm trying to get him back down here."
It seems that Scott wants to bring Crowe's Maximus back from the dead. And as Entertainment Weekly points out, "Crowe reportedly commissioned rocker Nick Cave in 2009 to write a Gladiator sequel script which had Maximus traversing through the afterlife, but it's unclear if Scott's idea has any connection to this."
This sounds like a bad idea! But here are some potential film titles:
Gladiators
Gladiator: Resurrection
Gladiator: Covenant
Gladiator 2: Too Fast Too Gladiator
Gladiator 2: Are You Still Not Entertained?
