Gladiator II Character Guide: Who Plays Who In Ridley Scott's Epic Sequel

Quick, find the nearest field of wheat and run your hands through it as cinematically as possible! This morning, Paramount Pictures saw fit to drop the first official trailer for director Ridley Scott's epic sequel "Gladiator II" and, yes, we are very entertained. Set decades after the events of the 2001 original, the follow-up film is set to pick up roughly where Russell Crowe's Roman general-turned-freedom-fighter Maximus Decimus Meridius left off, who (uh, spoiler alert) valiantly gave his life in the arena to end the reign of terror enacted by Joaquin Phoenix's unhinged Emperor Commodus. We'll now be looking through the perspective of up-and-coming star Paul Mescal as Lucius, who appears to be gearing up for a violent arc similar to the one the legendary Maximus navigated all those years ago. But trailers can be misleading, as we all know, and something tells us that there's much more than meets the eye here. The safe bet is to assume that Scott and screenwriter David Scarpa still have plenty hidden up their sleeves.

The thrilling footage packs in quite a lot of action into its lengthy three-minute runtime, focusing on everything from Lucius taking on gladiatorial rhinos armored for war to a thoroughly energetic Denzel Washington boasting some incredibly sleazy-looking vibes (complimentary) to Pedro Pascal kicking some butt and looking fabulous as he does so. The vast amount of characters we meet before quickly moving on to the next, however, deserves a much closer look. Those who haven't popped in the original "Gladiator" recently or closely followed the production of the sequel may be wondering who's back, who plays who, and what we can expect this time around.

So grab a handful of Colosseum sand and strap on your sword, because this "Gladiator II" character guide is the one for you.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree ... or does it? Given the trailer's emphasis on our new hero living up to the sky-high standards set by Maximus, accompanied by memorable shots of Lucius gazing up at the mythic Roman general's armor and sword with the full weight of destiny hanging over his head, newcomers would be forgiven for assuming that Paul Mescal's Lucius is meant to be the son of Russell Crowe's character. Not quite! Fans know that is actually a returning character from the original "Gladiator," which featured Spencer Treat Clark in the supporting role as young Lucius. Rather than being the son of Maximus (although he certainly looked up to him as a father figure, of sorts), he's actually the offspring of Lucilla (played by Connie Nielsen) and nephew of Commodus. As he says in the trailer, he also personally witnessed Maximus standing up to the Emperor.

Those family connections give Lucius an awfully complicated legacy of his own, which by all accounts will dog his every step throughout "Gladiator II." But the fresh spotlight and Lucius' relatively minor role in the original should both help Mescal make this character entirely his own. In a recent Vanity Fair first look at the film, we found out that Lucius begins the story with a family of his own far outside the reach of the Empire — or so he thinks. According to Scott, "He's taken root in a seacoast town in Numidia. He's a blue-eyed, fair-skinned man with red hair, and he couldn't be more different from the inhabitants. It's one of the last surviving civilizations, as the Romans begin to descend in North Africa and take it all over." This, as it turns out, puts him on several collision courses.

You've heard about needing to beware Greeks bearing gifts, but what about Romans nursing a deep-seated grudge? Lucius' idyllic life far removed from his Roman childhood inevitably comes crashing down, and he apparently has Pedro Pascal to blame for it. The "Game of Thrones," "Mandalorian," and "The Last of Us" star plays Marcus Acacius, a new character written for the sequel ... though he does have some interesting ties to a certain legacy character. A Roman general trained for brutality (which we get much more than a taste of in the new trailer), the Vanity Fair article indicates that his backstory is intertwined with Crowe's Maximus. A junior officer who once served under Maximus at some point before his untimely death in the Colosseum, it seems that he's also inherited many of his former leader's principles. Ultimately, however, don't expect a carbon copy of the great Maximus. As Pascal put it, Marcus "...learned from the best, so of course this code of honor is ingrained into his training and into his existence. But at the end of the day, he's a different person. And that can't change who he is. Maximus is Maximus, and that can't be replicated. That just makes Acacius capable of different things."

What he's capable of, as it turns out, is a talent for dishing out some serious damage. From the footage, we know that Marcus somehow ends up battling in the arena and, naturally, finds himself crossing blades with Lucius. Whether he realizes that he's put himself squarely in Lucius' sights remains unclear, but what's obvious is that this man can sure hold his own in a bloody fight against multiple assailants. The editing makes it seem Marcus is the film's main antagonist, but there are no shortage of candidates for that crown.

No "Gladiator" movie would be complete without an unfathomably rich and unsettlingly devious mastermind put in charge of the eponymous warriors. In the original, the late Oliver Reed filled that role as the grizzled gladiator trainer Proximo, a slaver-turned-ally who purchases Maximus before mentoring him to fight his way to freedom. In "Gladiator II," that position has since been replaced by Denzel Washington's too-cool-for-school Macrinus, another original character introduced in the sequel. Described as a powerbroker, his gaudy costumes on display throughout the trailer makes it abundantly clear that this man has connections, wealth, and power to spare. He immediately takes on a mentorship role with Lucius, though let's just say that his line that "You will be my instrument" to Lucius can't help but feel ... ominous, to put it mildly. And then there are his frequent speeches foreseeing the impending fall of Rome, implying that his aims are far more ambitious than Proximo's ever was. In fact, it's easy to imagine that he's coming for the top seat in the entire Empire.

We'll leave you with Scott's own colorful description of the character:

"Denzel is an arms dealer who supplies food for the armies in Europe, supplies wine and oil, makes steel, makes spears, weapons, cannons, and catapults. So he is a very wealthy man. Instead of having a stable of racehorses, he has a stable of gladiators. He's beautiful. He drives a golden Ferrari. I got him a gold-plated chariot."

If you thought the Targaryens of "Game of Thrones" and "House of the Dragon" had a chokehold on installing the most mentally disturbed and utterly unfit rulers on the throne, well, where do you think author George R.R. Martin got it from? The Romans might just have our favorite dragon-lords beat in that department, and "Gladiator II" is keeping this rich tradition going. After the 2001 film unleashed its unforgettable villain with Phoenix's Commodus, the tongue-wagging, thumb-downing, bloodthirsty dictator who fashioned himself as the next Caesar, Scott is dipping into a very similar well for the sequel — with a twist, of course. Instead of Lucius having to deal with just one psychotic Emperor, there are now two. Meet twin ruling brothers Geta (played by "Stranger Things" and "A Quiet Place: Day One" star Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger, seen in the "Fear Street" trilogy). Described by Scott as "...damaged goods from birth," their predilection towards bloodshed and death couldn't possibly be more apparent.

In the Vanity Fair profile, the brothers are likened to the mythic Roman figures Romulus and Remus, whom legend has it founded Rome in the first place after a childhood in which they were raised by wolves. If nothing else, that animalistic spirit is alive and well from what we see of them in the trailer, threatening that the masses can "eat war" if the Empire has that many subjects in need of feeding. We know with the benefit of hindsight that Rome is doomed to fall and, well, it's small wonder it did with Goofus and Gallant (Google them, kids) in charge.

Last but not least, we have the great Connie Nielsen reprising her original role as Lucilla. Distinguished from the rest of the ensemble as one of the rare characters actually based on a real historical figure, this noblewoman's claim to fame is that she's the eldest child of the late Emperor Marcus Aurelius (played by Richard Harris in the original movie) and brother to the usurping, power-hungry Commodus. A one-time lover of Maximus, Lucilla was as shocked as anyone when he popped up again for the first time in years in "Gladiator" fighting in the arena, of all places. It looks like history stands to repeat itself for the character who narrowly survived the carnage of the last movie, as her estranged son Lucius similarly reappears in her life under the most unexpected circumstances.

Although only glimpsed here and there in the trailer, it's likely that Lucilla will play an integral role in the winding journey of Lucius. We see her giving her son an impromptu tour of Maximus' old possessions, but the path will be anything but a straight line to get to that point. We know from that Vanity Fair piece that Lucius isn't all too happy about his mother, either, as she sent Lucius away from her and the Roman Empire as a boy for reasons that he's never quite understood. Forced to grow up essentially on his own, our hero has no inkling that his mother is still alive ... or that she now has her own connections with Pascal's Marcus. What a tangled web we weave, indeed.

"Gladiator II" and the rest of its talented cast of characters will arrive in theaters November 22, 2024.