“Gladiator II,” one of the year’s biggest action films and the sequel to Ridley Scott‘s Oscar-winning historical epic, will soon be streaming on Paramount+ on Jan. 21.
The movie stars Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Derek Jacobi, Yuval Gonen, Rory McCann, Peter Mensah, Matt Lucas, Tim McInnerny, Alexander Karim, Lior Raz, Line Ancel, Alec Utgoff, Lee Charles, Chidi Ajufo, Chi Lewis-Parry, Alfie Tempest, Dean Fagan and more.
“After his home is conquered by the tyrannical emperors who now lead Rome, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum and must look to his past to find strength to return the glory of Rome to its people,” reads the film’s logline.
“Gladiator II” is directed by Scott and written by David Scarpa, Peter Craig and David Franzoni. The film opened to a $87 million debut at the international box office, which was the highest-grossing opening weekend internationally for an R-rated film from Paramount Pictures. The movie also marked among Imax’s top three international releases last year year. It’s made $454 million worldwide so far.
In addition to the original “Gladiator,” Scott’s most successful films at the global box office are “The Martian” and “Prometheus,” which grossed $630 million and $403 million, respectively.
In his review of the film, Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman described “Gladiator II” as “a solid piece of neoclassical popcorn — a serviceable epic of brutal warfare, Colosseum duels featuring lavish decapitations and beasts both animal and human, along with the middlebrow ‘decadence’ of palace intrigue.”