The two actors who almost played Lucius from Gladiator 2 before Paul Mescal

This weekend, thanks to the release of Gladiator II (read our review), a lot more people than usual were thinking about the Roman Empire. In Ridley Scott’s return to Rome’s glory, Paul Mescal takes on the role of Lucius, the newest recruit to the Colosseum after the late, great Maximus (Russell Crowe), who haunts the Gladiator sequel throughout. However, there was a time when there was talk of other stars entering the arena as new heroes, and their involvement could have made for a very different film (albeit one that still featured angry baboons and Denzel Washington would have contributed). hissing “politics”).

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Timothée Chalamet and Miles Teller were both set to play Lucius before Mescal came on board. The “Dune” and “Top Gun: Maverick” actors were also apparently front-runners for the role, at least until Scott decided to give in to the late-night TV binge. After spending hours binging Mescal’s hit series Normal People, steps were taken to arrange interviews with the promising young talent.

While Scott made it clear in subsequent conversations that the role would be demanding, Mescal seemed up for it. Producer Doug Wick and co-producer Lucy Fisher then watched Mescal in a stage production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” and were equally confident that they had found their man, even if they knew the risks of casting him went hand in hand. “Any studio would always prefer to have a well-known star,” Wick admitted. However, he and the others saw it this way: “No other actor came close.”

After a Zoom call with cigar-chewing legend Ridley Scott, Mescal declined to immediately accept the offer, fully aware of what it could lead to. “I might have been hesitant about making the first major studio film because it represents your attitude as an actor,” he told THR. It’s understandable to be worried; Once you start turning heads in the real world by cutting them off in slow motion in a movie, there’s no going back. On the other hand, Crowe managed to avoid being pigeonholed after his starring role in the original Gladiator and has since enjoyed a varied career, most recently even riding around on a Vespa fighting demons in The Pope’s Exorcist defeat.

However, Mescal refused to reach out to his predecessor after signing on for Gladiator II. Crowe himself has admitted to having mixed feelings about the Gladiator sequel, having tried to get an earlier version of the project off the ground for years before the final version was made. However, in the end, Mescal decided to focus on forging his own path with the franchise. “It was actually useful to have some distance from (Crowe) because I had to do my own thing,” the actor admitted. While there’s no word yet on whether Crowe has seen the new film, hopefully he’ll eventually find out that Mescal did his part to bring strength and honor to the Gladiator name.

“Gladiator II” is now in cinemas.