The next time someone tries to tell you nothing productive comes from binge-watching TV, just point them to Gladiator II. In a Hollywood Reporter feature on the making of the Ridley Scott-helmed film, it was revealed that the director binge-watching Paul Mescal’s Hulu series Normal People is what helped the actor land the leading role of Lucius Verus.
Only Scott knows what led him to the drama series about an emotionally complex relationship in which Mescal plays a sensitive man who breaks down during a therapy session. Whatever the reason, it helped Scott pick him over more established stars like Timothée Chalamet and Miles Teller. Since the feature explains how Paramount co-presidents of film Daria Cercek and Michael Ireland watched Mescal star as Stanley Kowalski in the 2022 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire in London before making their decision, that means Scott chose Mescal after Chalamet won a brutal knife fight as Paul Atreides in Dune and Teller competed in a shirtless football game as Lt. Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw in Top Gun: Maverick.
“Any studio would always prefer to have a known star,” Gladiator II producer Doug Wick says. However, he also later admitted, “no other actor came close.”
Mescal proved to be a fit for the physically demanding role which involved dealing with “borderline heat stroke from time to time” according to the star, who worked under sweltering conditions in Morocco and Malta where the film was shot. Risking his health paid off, as Gladiator II’s $106 million opening weekend box office should be enough for any studio to greenlight a second sequel. Before a single ticket was sold, Scott already had a “soft footprint” for a possible Gladiator III. Mescal and Scott already have plans to work together again in thriller The Dog Stars. Although Mescal says the pair haven’t extensively discussed making another Gladiator film, “it’s an idea that I’d be excited about.”
Before you re-enter the Gladiator arena, pay your respects to Normal People, the series responsible for one of the biggest films of 2024 looking the way it does.