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Like Father Like Son

Gladiator 2's latest trailer is one for those of you that hate modern music in historical epics, not one for those that hate screaming, blood-covered apes and spoilers

You don't have to put the whole film in the trailer, Hollywood.

Paul Mescal as Lucius in Gladiator 2, he's crouched down wearing armour, sword stabbed in the ground, rubbing sand into his hands.
Image credit: Paramount
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News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor
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Paramount has put out a new trailer for Gladiator 2, and it might be a bit more welcoming to those who don't like to mix new with old.

When the first trailer for Gladiator 2 released back in July, I couldn't help but laugh a little bit at the fact it used Kanye West and Jay-Z's No Church In The Wild. Clearly some executive said "we just gotta put it a big song people recognise", and that's what they landed on/ could get the rights to. Silliness aside, it did at least look like one of those blockbusters of old, before the days of Marvel, and now yesterday Paramount released the film's second trailer which feels a bit more tonally appropriate, even if it does now have some screaming, bloody apes that will probably give me nightmares. Oh, and, it should come with a bit of a spoiler warning, as it has a bit of a major reveal, so maybe don't watch it or read on if you hate spoilers.

Alright, ready for spoilers? So, as it turns out, our main man Lucius Verus the second, played by the very talented Paul Mescal in this outing, isn't actually the son of Lucius Verus the first. As it turns out, Maximus, you know, Russel Crowe in the first film, is actually his father. This probably won't be a massive surprise, this was lightly implied in the original Gladiator, but you'd think that maybe this is something they'd save as a reveal when you actually sit down and watch the film. A classic case of the whole movie being in the trailer, I guess.

Cover image for YouTube videoGladiator II | New Trailer (2024 Movie) - Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Ridley Scott
Watch on YouTube

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mescal spoke about this little twist, and when asked if he was shocked he said "Oh, absolutely. I was like, 'Holy s**t.'" He explained that it's "an affronting thing to see it written on the page, and [to have] that responsibility fall on your shoulders is interesting."

Gladiator 2 is out in cinemas this coming November 22.

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