It’s July 1st, folks. Do you know what that means? Pride Month is over, and all the companies that told us we were welcome to spend our money with them are packing up their rainbow flags and forgetting about gays and the rest until next year. But don’t worry, we have a buffer to cushion the fall when the country gives us a Abyss of despair: Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal look dirty and bloody in the first pictures of Gladiator II.
Vanity Fair has released a first look at the film, which is the sequel to the Oscar-winning 2000 film starring Russell Crowe. Original director Ridley Scott returns to direct, with Mescal (Normal people, We are all strangers) will play the lead role of Lucius Verus, last portrayed as a young child in the original by Spencer Treat Clark. Connie Nielsen is also returning for the sequel, reprising her role as Lucilla, Lucius’ mother. Gladiator II will take place decades after the first film, with the two long separated and forced to confront the state of their relationship. But in the time since their separation, the Roman Empire – led by Pascal’s (The last of us, The Mandarin) character Marcus Acacius – has begun to advance into North Africa, where Lucius is hiding.
All roads lead back to the gladiator fights, and for more details on how Gladiator II to the original film, be sure to watch Vanity Fair‘s article. But their story and interviews also include 13 pictures of Mescal, Pascal, Nielsen and other actors like Denzel Washington, who plays the arms dealer Macrinus. I’m not sure if gladiator needs a sequel when it ended over 20 years ago, but for the chance to see Pascal and Mescal on the big screen doing hot guy stuff? I’ll watch most of it.
Gladiator II is scheduled to hit theaters on November 22nd, but the first trailer will premiere next week on July 9th.
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