Denzel Washington has revealed that Gladiator 2 originally featured a scene in which his character Macrinus kissed a man, but it was cut from the movie’s final edit.
“I kissed the man in the film, but they took it [out]. They cut it, I think they got chicken. I kissed a guy full on the lips and I guess they weren’t ready for that yet,” the Academy Award winner told Gayety in the run-up to the film’s release.
“I killed him about five minutes later. It’s Gladiator,” Washington laughed. “It’s the kiss of death.”
Directed by Ridley Scott, Gladiator 2 follows Paul Mescal’s Lucius, the son of Russell Crowe’s ill-fated Maximus from the 2000 original, as he’s taught by Washington’s Roman powerbroker to fight for his life inside the Colosseum. Macrinus is keen to overthrow young emperors Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and Geta (Joseph Quinn), but Lucius has other things on his mind: getting revenge against General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) and his violent soldiers after they invaded Lucius’s home, killed his wife, and forced him into slavery.
Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacobi round out the cast, reprising their roles from the first film. With a 75% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the long-awaited looks to be going down well with critics, who are claiming Washington deserves Oscar buzz for his “showstopping, Machiavellian” performance. Our own Gladiator 2 review gives the movie four stars.
Gladiator 2 releases on November 15 in the UK, and November 22 in the US. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies heading our way in 2024, as well as the best action movies to fill out your watchlist.