“So you’re saying that at the same time [that] he had this relationship with his wife, he was f---ing this other girl?”

Russell Crowe trashes Gladiator II for removing Maximus’ ‘moral core’: ‘What are you talking about?’

"So you're saying that at the same time [that] he had this relationship with his wife, he was f---ing this other girl?"

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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December 9, 2025 3:20 p.m. ET

Russell Crowe in 'Gladiator'; Paul Mescal in 'Gladiator II'. Credit:

Jaap Buitendijk/Dreamworks; Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures

- Russell Crowe thinks *Gladiator II *removed his character's "moral core" by revealing that Paul Mescal's Lucius is his out-of-wedlock son.

- The *Beautiful Mind* star believes that the sequel's filmmakers were "not actually understanding what made the first one special."

- Crowe also said that women confronted him about Maximus' off-screen behavior: "It's like, 'Hey, it wasn't me! I didn't do it!'"

Is Russell Crowe not entertained?

The *Master and Commander *star criticized Ridley Scott's *Gladiator II* during a new interview with Triple J, opining that the film failed to recapture the magic of 2000's *Gladiator*.

"I think the recent sequel that we don't have to name out loud is a really unfortunate example of even the people in that engine room not actually understanding what made the first one special," Crowe said in a clip shared on Triple J's social media. "It wasn't the pomp, it wasn't the circumstance, it wasn't the action — it was the moral core."

Crowe, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of general-turned-gladiator Maximus in the original film, said that it was challenging to ensure that his character remained morally righteous during the production of the first film.

Russell Crowe in Los Angeles on Oct. 24, 2025.

Michael Kovac/Getty

"There was a daily fight on that set — it was a daily fight to keep that moral core of the character," he recalled. "The amount of times they suggested sex scenes and stuff like that for Maximus, it's like, you're taking away his power. What are you talking about?"

*Gladiator II* starred Paul Mescal as Lucius, a young warrior who is later revealed to be the son of Maximus and Connie Nielsen's Lucilla. Crowe believes that Maximus fathering a son with a woman other than his wife tarnishes his character's legacy, as the gladiator's primary motivation in the original film is to avenge the deaths of his wife and son.

"So you're saying that at the same time [that] he had this relationship with his wife, he was f---ing this other girl?" Crowe asked incredulously. "What are you talking about? It's crazy."

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The actor also said that passersby confronted him about Maximus' behavior once the sequel — which he did not appear in — revealed that the character fathered a child out of wedlock.

"The women in Europe, when that movie started coming out, I would be at restaurants, they would come and talk to me, and go, 'Hey, what's going on [with Maximus]?'" he recalled. "It's like, 'Hey, it wasn't me! I didn't do it!'"

Representatives for Scott did not immediately respond to **'s request for comment.

*Gladiator II* doesn't explicitly clarify the timeline of Maximus and Lucilla's affair, so there's a chance that their past relationship — which was alluded to in the original movie — had ended by the time Crowe's character married his wife. However, it's clear that Nielsen's character *was* definitely married to another man at the time of her tryst with Maximus.

Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington in 'Gladiator II'.

Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures

Nielsen told EW that she suspected Lucius' true parentage all along, as she observed an unusual connection between Maximus and her on-screen son in their brief meeting in the original movie, which saw Spencer Treat Clark play Lucius as a young boy.

"I was not sure whether they were going to just insinuate it or they were going to come straight out and say that Lucilla had been a bit of a bad girl," Nielsen said last year. "What you felt was that Maximus, when he talked to Lucius in Gladiator, did so with a lot of love. You could see that he was speaking the way he spoke to his own son back home. And I felt that [Crowe] was doing that scene as well with a feeling of, 'Oh, what if…'"

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Mescal said he was surprised to learn that his character was Maximus' son when he first discussed the project with Scott. "I was like, 'Holy s---,'" he remembered in an interview with EW. "It's an affronting thing to see it written on the page, and [to have] that responsibility fall on your shoulders is interesting,"

Mescal also told EW that he didn't consult with Crowe when preparing to take over as the franchise's lead. "I think now would be a great time to talk to him," the *Aftersun* star said after filming was completed. "The dust has settled, my job is done, and I would love to trade war stories now about what it was like making it for him and what it was like making it for me."

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