More than two decades after legendary film director Ridley Scott made his original Gladiator film and lead actor Russell Crowe Oscar winners, the long-awaited sequel has now completed filming.

Celebrating the end of the big-budget production, Paul Mescal – who plays the lead of Lucius, the ‘adopted‘ son of Crowe’s in the original 2000 film – and Scott, celebrated arm-in-arm with cigars in a behind-the-scenes shot posted to social media.

“The end,” it read.

Earlier this month, 86-year-old Scott – whose six decades in the industry took off with Alien in 1979 – finally spoke about his new Gladiator star as he settling in to finish two weeks of post production on the sequel.

While his Oscar win changed his career trajectory, Crowe, who played Maximus, has made it abundantly clear he has nothing to do with Gladiator 2 after bluntly reminding audiences he actually dies in the first film.

At a press conference at the Czech Republic July film festival, he said: “In that world, I’m dead, six feet under”.

“They should be f–king paying me for the amount of questions I get asked about the f–king film that I am not even in,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter.

“I don’t know anything about the cast. I don’t know anything about the plot.”

Without giving too much away, Scott says “it really boils down to whatever happened to Lucius”.

“Lucius was the survivor of the first one, which people forgot, fortunately. Lucius was the son of Lucilla … he disappeared at the end because there’s no reason to follow him,” he tells Indiewire via zoom last week.

“And we utilise that as a device to say what happened and where did we go next,” he says.

Casting Mescal was the lucky break he was looking for, he says.

“I got lucky. I happened to be watching Normal People [2020 Irish TV mini series] … and I thought, “Who is this guy?” So I got lucky. He’s got what it takes.

Scott also knew he was an “athletic, muscular guy” and could easily master the gruelling Colosseum fight scenes.

“He used to play Irish rugby, which is about as violent as it gets.”

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Will Mescal become ‘wildly famous’?

In 2023, entertainment industry website Deadline said competition for the role heated up in 2022 after a final draft of the film was delivered, and it was Mescal who stood out.

“By landing the role, Mescal not only gets to show off the strong range that earned him an Emmy nomination for his work on Normal People but also the physique the industry already had taken notice of that is needed to play the role.

“Crowe famously put on some serious muscle for the part, and Mescal will look to do the same,” Deadline wrote.

Starring alongside the 27-year-old Irish actor, Mescal – who received an Oscar nomination for his performance last year in Aftersun – include Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal.

Connie Nielsen and Djimon Hounsou reprise their roles as Lucilla and Juba.

“I don’t know what the difference will be,” Mescal recently told The Times UK when the prospect of his fame growing even bigger due to the sequel.

“Maybe that’s naive? Is it just that more people will stop you in the street?

“I’d get profoundly depressed if that’s so and hope it isn’t true … if [the film] impacts my life in that way, I’ll be in a bad spot. I’d have to move on and do an obtuse play nobody wants to see.”

Russell Crowe will be back on the big screen soon. He has upcoming roles in Kraven the Hunter, The Georgetown Project and Nuremberg (where he will play Hermann Göring). Photo: AAP

You will be entertained again!

In Scott’s 2000 blockbuster, Maximus was the commander of the Armies of the North in the Roman Empire, serving loyally under Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

When the emperor is murdered by his son Commodus, and Maximus refuses to swear allegiance, his wife and son were crucified by the Roman cavalrymen.

In 192AD, he finally had the opportunity to avenge the emperor’s death – as well as his wife and son – and he killed Commodus in a bloody, fierce arena battle, and Maximus also died of his wounds.

Maximus is believed to have had a romance with the emperor’s daughter, Lucilla, when they were young and had not yet married.

She later married and had a son, Lucius, who was played by Spencer Treat Clark.

Construction on an arena in Morocco in April last year ahead of the film’s shoot. Photo: AAP

Delays, injured crew

Set construction in Ouarzazate, Morocco began in April last year and filming finally got underway in June with additional filming locations planned for Malta and the UK over the next four months.

On June 7, an accident during a planned stunt left six crew members with non-life-threatening burn injuries, Paramount Pictures confirmed.

According to the Times of Malta, the country’s taxpayers forked out a large chunk of the movie’s budget.

“Through the Malta Film Commission, the government has committed itself to paying €46,653,961 ($90 million) to the subsidiary company of Paramount for the production.

“Of the €46.7 million ($90m) that Gladiator is getting, for instance, €5m ($9m) will go to pay a share of the salaries of actor Denzel Washington, director Ridley Scott and other top cast and crew,” it reported in August.

“Millions more will go to pay the salaries of hundreds of other foreign crew members and actors and to subsidise the renting of high-end cinematic equipment, props, costumes and machinery from other countries.

The sequel was also plagued with delays due to the 118-day double strike by writers and actors last year before it resumed shooting on location on December 4 in Malta.

Filming wrapped on January 17 with a well-deserved cigar.

Paramount Pictures will release Gladiator 2 on November 22