Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2, starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn, and more, is an epic historical drama serving as the sequel to 2000’s Gladiator. Paul Mescal is set to play an adult Lucius who grows admiration for Maximus and decides to be a symbolical hero gladiator like Maximus.
David Scarpa served as the writer of the movie whose filming began in June 2023 at locations including Morocco, Malta, and the United Kingdom. The filming of the movie was put on hold due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike and resumed in December wrapping up on January 17th, 2024. Recent reports have disclosed the budget of the movie that surpasses any of the Star Wars or DCU movies.
Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2’s budget reportedly comes close to $310 million
According to a recent report by The Hollywood Reporter, Ridley Scott’s much-awaited movie Gladiator 2 starring Paul Mescal was initially budgeted at $165 million but now the budget has reached up to $310 million. A source shared with the publication,
“It’s a runaway. It’s not being managed. “
However, an insider from Paramount had insisted that the net cost of Gladiator 2’s seven-week shoot was near about $250 million. The report also suggested that the budget bloating could be responsible after the SAG-AFTRA strikes had forced the filming to take a necessary halt. The halt due to strikes had a loss of near about $600,000 a week between when the movie started in July to December when it resumed.
If the budget for Gladiator 2 is really as the report suggests, it would be among one of the biggest in the industry more than the original movie along with Star Wars or the DCU movies. DCEU’s 2017 Justice League had a budget estimated up to $300 million with Star Wars movies including Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had a budget of $275 million.
THR also claims that Ridley Scott had kept the cameras rolling during the strikes, filming extras at crowd scenes in Malta where he reportedly had built a Coliseum set. The movie has found itself under the spotlight ever since it was announced with accidents on set harming the crew members followed by PETA allegedly that the production engaged in mistreatment of the animals involved.
However, sources at the time clarified that the makers denied the allegation by mentioning that the Humane Society Officials were present on the sets while filming.
Ridley Scott describes the production of Gladiator 2 as a ‘real pain’
Gladiator 2 wrapped up its filming on January 17th, 2024 after which the director spoke to Indie Wire where he revealed that the production of the movie had been a real pain. He said,
“I’ve now finished almost 85% of Gladiator. We were interrupted by the strike, so I lost four months. Otherwise right now, I’d be mixing it. I went back about four weeks after the strike and nearly finished before Christmas and I’ve got to go back 10 days to finish. It’s a real pain.”
Talking about Paul Mescal’s character Lucius who was played by Spencer Treat Clark in the first movie, Scott Ridley said,
“Lucius was the survivor of the first one, which people forgot, fortunately. Lucius was the son of Lucilla; he disappeared at the end because there’s no reason to follow him. And, we utilize that as a device to say what happened and where did we go next?”
At the BAFTAs, Paul Mescal teased about the highly awaited movie by stating that Ridley Scott is the absolute king and he is incredibly excited and proud of their work together.
Gladiator 2 is scheduled for November 22, 2024 release.
