Veteran director Ridley Scott 83 has insisted that the long awaited and seemingly unlikely sequel to his iconic Russell Crowe action epic Gladiator is ready to go and will be his next project once his current Napoleon project wraps.

Already in 2021 the director responsible for iconic classics like Alien and Blade Runner added two new films to his ever growing catalog, with both The Last Duel and House of Gucci releasing in October and November respectively.

After five decades his drive seems as high as ever with a Gladiator follow up apparently set to launch into production as soon as Kitbag, his current period project completes.

Ever since the original Gladiator film catapulted Russell Crowe to action superstardom and became an undisputed instant classic there have been eager plans for a sequel. Previous ideas for the project had Russell Crowe set to reprise his role as Maximus, either by exploring his backstory and rise through the ranks of the roman army, or perhaps seeing him literally reincarnated to return him from the afterlife.

Those rumoured plans are now decades old so it remains to be seen to what extent Crowe and Maximus will feature in the sequel project or whether it will merely be a the story of entirely new gladiators entering the fabled blood stained battlefield of the coliseum, perhaps during the rule of a very different emperor.

In either case Scott has confirmed that he has people polishing a script of some sort now.

“I’m already having [the next] Gladiator written now, so when I’ve done Napoleon, Gladiator will be ready to go.”