Netflix Scores Big With Ridley Scott's Long-Awaited 148-Minute Action Epic

After dominating in theaters and taking over its original streaming home, Ridley Scott’s long-awaited historical action epic just touched down on Netflix, and audiences are already entertained. It only took 24 years for Ridley Scott to make the sequel he’d been promising audiences for decades. Admittedly, he’d been quite busy working on massive hits like Black Hawk Down, American Gangster, The Martian, and the criminally underrated Raised by Wolves TV series. But in 2024, audiences were finally hurled back in time for a legacy sequel to Scott’s magnum opus (provided you don’t count Alien or Blade Runner as his best movies).

Thankfully, we haven’t had to wait 24 years for the movie to drop on Netflix, as two years after its theatrical release, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II just landed on the streaming platform. Gladiator II was added to Netflix on Oct. 21. After just two days on the platform, it has completely taken over. At the time of writing, Gladiator II is the number one movie on Netflix in the US. It has pushed Ben Affleck’s divisive thriller Animals down into second. Also in the top 10 are Sacrifice, Twilight, The Fate of the Furious, and, how could we forget the masterpiece that is Hot Wheels Let’s Race: Attack of the T-Rex (Ridley Scott can only dream of making movies like that).

Is ‘Gladiator II’ As Good as the Original?

The other major downside of a sequel taking two decades is that audiences’ expectations quickly grow out of control. The Russell Crowe-led Gladiator is a modern classic that helped usher in a new age of sword-and-sandal copycats. It’s often considered to be one of, if not Ridley Scott’s best movies. Needless to say, hopes were high for Gladiator II.

Paul Mescal led the film as Lucius, the son of Maximus (it’s not a spoiler when it’s ruined in every trailer), who fled Rome after his father’s death. When he’s captured as a prisoner of war and thrown into the fighting pits, he swears revenge against the entire Roman Legion. Mescal delivered a great performance as the rage-fueled Lucius, a stark contrast to the calm and collected Maximus. But the film itself was just missing that spark. Russell Crowe blames the lack of a moral core, while critics and audiences had a variety of opinions and criticisms. Eitherway, very few people thought Gladiator II was superior to the original.

What’s Going On With ‘Gladiator 3’?

Lucius extends a sword in Gladiator II — Paul Mescal in Gladiator II

In the run-up to Gladiator II‘s release, Ridley Scott built the hype even further by teasing a third movie, which he already had mapped out. However, in the two years since, he hasn’t said another word about it. It might be because the director has been having a tough time at the box office lately. The Dog Stars, his new sci-fi action movie, was a complete bomb. It grossed just $39 million worldwide, against a budget of between $70 and $110 million. So, it’s safe to assume that Paramount is hesitant to throw more money at the director for Gladiator III.