Ridley Scott recently revealed that Gladiator II was almost turned into a musical.
In an interview with Deadline, Scott shared that the idea involved Russell Crowe’s character, Maximus, being brought back to life to kill Jesus Christ and his followers.
This storyline was created by Nick Cave and Scott, Crowe were all initially on board.
“I was going along with the boys. I didn’t really believe in it. It got too rich and started to go to time warps, which frankly I thought was bloody silly,” Scott said.
He added, “But the one thing I added to it was this great idea of [opening] a portal of time in death, and it would have to come from the dying soul of a dying soldier in a battlefield. Isn’t that cool? I kept it as a little silver bullet, thinking, ‘I’ll use that again somewhere.’”
However, Scott chose not to pursue the musical direction and Gladiator II went in more traditional direction.
Additionally, the sequel, which also stars Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, and Denzel Washington, was released on November 15 in the UK and will premiere in the U.S. on November 22.
