Pedro Pascal Cast in ‘Gladiator’ Sequel
The Mandalorian and The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal has found his next big project while he waits for both of those series to go back into production.
Deadline has learned that Pascal is in final negotiations to appear in the upcoming sequel to the 2000 Best Picture winner Gladiator. Ridley Scott is back to direct and has lined up an impressive cast so far, led by Paul Mescal, and including Denzel Washington, Barry Keoghan, Joseph Quinn, and Connie Nielsen, who is returning as Lucilla, Lucius’ mother.
The film could start shooting as soon as this summer, given the recent wave of casting, and it seems like the project Pascal wants to partake in before going back to the post-apocalyptic world of The Last of Us. A second season for the hit HBO series was greenlit earlier this year after the unprecedented success of the first, and according to Pascal himself, could begin shooting before the end of the year. His work on The Mandalorian is currently not limiting him from working on other projects — he was away in Canada shooting for The Last of Us for the entire duration of the Mandalorian season 3 shoot.
The yet-untitled Gladiator sequel has always been billed as one of the hottest projects in Hollywood. Scott has been working on it for years now, and with the script in a good place, he finally found a good time to shoot it once he was done with Napoleon. (The upcoming historical epic starring Gladiator‘s Joaquin Phoenix will hit theaters this November, and is currently in post-production.) Top agencies in town started submitting their best picks for the lead, and after meeting with potential candidates, Scott ruled in favor of Aftersun star Paul Mescal, who seems to be everyone’s new favorite actor. That didn’t prevent other rising talents and even huge stars like Barry Keoghan or Denzel Washington, from throwing their hat in the ring after hearing the pitch for the film.
Gladiator 2 is scheduled for a November 22, 2024, release.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
