Ridley Scott couldn’t stop thinking about Paul Mescal after watching Normal People, so he cast him in Gladiator 2

Oct. 6, 2023

Exclusive: Ridley Scott tells Total Film about casting Paul Mescal for the Gladiator sequel in the new issue

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Ridley Scott says the decision to cast Paul Mescal as the lead of Gladiator 2 was all down to Normal People.

Mescal will play Commodus' nephew Lucius in the long-awaited sequel to the beloved first movie. Scott, who is on the cover of the new issue ofTotal Film magazine, opened up about finding Mescal for the role.

“Can I see Paul Mescal being as big as Russell Crowe? For sure,” Scott tells Total Film in our new issue, which hits newsstands on October 12. “I watched Normal People. It’s not my kind of show but I saw four episodes in a row – boom, boom, boom. I was thinking, ‘Who the hell is this Paul Mescal?’

“That took 10 months. So it went dead. And then we circled the wagons again, coming back with a very obvious idea, and why not? There’s a survivor. The survivor is the son of the union between Lucilla and Maximus.”

Aside fromAftersunstar Mescal, the sequel boasts an incredible supporting cast, including Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, Joseph Quinn, Pedro Pascal, and May Calamawy. Production kicked off on Gladiator 2 earlier this year, butfilming was paused amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

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Jamie Graham is the Editor-at-Large of Total Film magazine. You’ll likely find them around these parts reviewing the biggest films on the planet and speaking to some of the biggest stars in the business – that’s just what Jamie does. Jamie has also written for outlets like SFX and the Sunday Times Culture, and appeared on podcasts exploring the wondrous worlds of occult and horror.

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