Ridley Scott Says Russell Crowe Once Asked to Star inGladiator II: 'I Want to Come Back from the Dead' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Ridley Scott; Russell Crowe in Gladiator.Photo:Jose Oliva/Europa Press via Getty; DreamWorks/Courtesy Everett

Jose Oliva/Europa Press via Getty; DreamWorks/Courtesy Everett

Russell Crowedoesn’t return to the Colosseum in the long anticipated sequel toGladiator— but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

As legendary filmmakerRidley Scotttells PEOPLE, the New Zealand star, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 2001 for his performance in the first film, was eager to somehow factor intoGladiatorIIdespite his character Maximus’s death at the end of the original.

“Russell and I had a go at it around 18 years ago,” Scott, 86, recalls. “I had Nick Cave writing the script and I kept saying [to Russell], ‘But you’re dead.’ And he said, ‘I know I’m dead. And I want to come back from the dead.'”

Scott says he tried to devise a way to include Maximus in the sequel via a “portal to bring him back from the dead.” “The only way of doing it was to go to another battle and through a dying warrior, he comes back into the spirit of the warrior,” remembers Scott. “So that’s his portal.”

When presented with the concept, Scott says Crowe rebuffed it because it would require casting a different actor in the reincarnated role. “He said, ‘So that’s no f—ing good, is it?'” Scott recalls Crowe saying. “It didn’t really work.”

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Gladiator.Universal/Getty

Universal/Getty

Crowe expressed feeling FOMO after not being included in the sequel, previously tellingColliderhewas “slightly jealous” because, looking back, “I was a much younger man, obviously, and it was a huge experience in my life.” Crowe added thatGladiatorstill “holds a special place in my heart.”

The actor also said on a podcast that itwas “slightly uncomfortable” for him sincehis character is “dead, and I have no say in what gets done” in future storylines: “Can’t say anything. It’s not my place. I’m six foot under,” he said at the time.

Two original cast members do reprise their roles: Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacobi. New cast members range from Denzel Washington to Pedro Pascal and Joseph Quinn.

Director Scott then said, “I’ll add to that: Why would Roger Moore call up Sean Connery [for a James Bond movie]? … What’s he gonna do that for?”

For more onGladiator II,pick up this week’s issue ofPEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

source: people.com