So far as I can tell from the trailers for Gladiator II, the real star of this movie is Denzel Washington, who stalks around with more charisma than the rest of the actors combined. The other star, of course, is the sheer amount of violence that will go down in the gladiatorial arena—violence that involves a bunch of CGI animals, boats, and creative chaos. I will give them points for the creative chaos.
But this second trailer for the film makes a very strange choice: to reveal the true paternity of Paul Mescal’s Lucius. Tucked in among Washington’s pronouncements, the clash of swords, and Pedro Pascal’s moodiness is a scene in which Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) tells her son, “Lucius, take your father’s strength. His name was Maximus, and I see him in you.” (Lest you think this is a tricky misdirect, it’s been confirmed in Entertainment Weekly.)
Why now? Why hide this in the initial wave of promotion and then reveal it in a trailer? Another question is why do something so predictable at all, but Gladiator II is clearly not worried about being predictable (when the trailers make it clear that Lucius’ beloved gets killed in order to further drive his rage, we are beyond worrying about cliches). The most interesting narrative thing here is the tension between Lucius and Pascal’s General Acacius: Lucius wants to kill the general, while Lucilla tells the very same man, “You must help him.”
I’m sure that’s going to go super well. Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II is in theaters November 22nd.
