This one change in Gladiator 2 could have made it live up to the legacy of the original 2000 film

Gladiator 2 is a sequel to the 2000 film Gladiator. Directed by Ridley Scott, the sequel was released on November 22, 2024, by Paramount Pictures. Here's the official synopsis:

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.

While the film ended up grossing $462.2 million, several critics pointed out that it's far from its predecessor. It could have been better if the makers had made this one change in the storyline.

This change in Gladiator 2 could have made it better

Gladiator 2 featured some characters from the first film while also introducing several new ones. It wasn't a standalone film as it was connected to the story of Maximus. The makers made the protagonist, Lucius Verus Aurelius, the son of Maximus. This doesn't work in the film's favor, and the connection feels forced.

If the makers had simply not made him Maximus' son, the film would have been different. The storyline would have been different if Lucius had simply admired the Russell Crowe character. They could have connected it to the first film by showing that he admired Maximus and his death affected him deeply.

Taking inspiration from Maximus, the protagonist could be driven by all the injustices he saw growing up. The makers of Gladiator 2 manage to create standalone characters with interesting arcs like General Acacius and Macrinus.

The story of Gladiator 2 was written by Peter Craig and David Scarpa, while the screenplay was written by Scarpa. Scott produced it with Lucy Fisher, Douglas Wick, David Franzoni, and Michael Pruss.

The cast members of the film are,

Paul Mescal as Lucius Verus Aurelius
Pedro Pascal as General Acacius
Connie Nielsen as Lucilla
Denzel Washington as Macrinus
Joseph Quinn as Emperor Geta
Fred Hechinger as Emperor Caracalla
Lior Raz as Viggo
Derek Jacobi as Senator Gracchus
Peter Mensah as Jugurtha
Matt Lucas as the Master of Ceremonies
Alexander Karim as Ravi

The film serves as a sequel to the first film, which itself was inspired by the book Those About to Die.

Ridley Scott spoke to Deadline about the scale and size of Gladiator 2. He said,

"A lot of it was seen in rooms, so not too much war. Enough war and enough punches, But when you have to build Rome…Napoleon, I didn’t have to build anything except the fort in Toulon. Funny enough, that had the same size and footprint as Rome. So I went back, tore down Toulon and built Rome. Building Rome was a huge undertaking."

"What you see in the film when you arrived with Acacius [Pedro Pascal]. That ain’t blue screen. We built the whole damn thing. I can come to why; because I worked out that blue screen, blow by blow and shot by shot, is very expensive and sometimes surpasses the cost of actually building a set. In this instance, that was the case. You could only do this with a great production designer like Arthur Max. Sometimes it required 1500 men. Arthur and I know each other so well, since before Blackhawk."