well_endowed_ag said:

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That trailer is terrible. Good god.

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Agreed. I'll wait for the stream.

You know it's bad when you have no desire to share with anyone.

I absolutely agree with you that there will be more political machinations to be shown. Pascal's character appears to be a high ranking general and we have the co-Emperors in Geta and Caracalla who are brothers. Then Denzel's character definitely has his own want for power and says Lucius will be his weapon.

At least there were no chariots jumping over the shark infested waters in the trailer.

Only on TexAgs would "No Church in the Wild" - one of the most popular hip hop tracks of the 21st century, by Jay-Z and Kanye West at the peak of their powers - be considered "terrible" rap/"freakin' Spotify music." Not only is the track from the infamous "Watch the Throne" album (a title that is obviously thematically relevant here), the song itself is about nihilism and the idea that often you have to fight for yourself when there is one else to save you (also thematically relevant). The lyrics specifically mention "tears on the mausoleum floor, blood stains the Coliseum doors" (heard in the trailer) while the chorus is spot-on as well…

Human beings in a mob
What's a mob to a king?
What's a king to a God?
What's a God to a non-believer
Who don't believe in anything?
Will he make it out alive?
Alright, alright
No church in the wild

In other words, this wasn't some flippant song choice, but rather a thematically rich play for a more modern audience, and personally I think it kicks ass.

Also, you guys realize there was a trailer for the first movie scored to Kid Rock, right?

I feel the movie looks good, I love all the actors, and the CGI and cinematography look great.

But what an absolutely AWFUL song choice. My God. It basically ruins what could've been a great trailer.

Seriously, you have one of the best movie scores of all time at your disposal, and you choose a crappy, generic hip hop song to put over it? What moron came up with that idea?

It feels like an incredibly try-hard attempt to appeal to younger audiences, when the legacy of the original movie should've been enough to do so.

Looks like a movie I'll love to watch when it comes to streaming.

hoosierAG said:

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I will definitely see it, but as I said before you are messing with perfection, especially with no Hans Zimmer music. And that trailer didn't help imo-just a busy mess.

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Biggest miss in all of this is not bringing Hans Zimmer back. Have to think they offered and he couldn't do it.

It's just not good..

I couldn't care less about the music for this trailer. My excitement went from a 10 to 0. Looks like a trailer for one of those sequels to 300 that I will never watch either.

The biggest problem is all sequel's problems. The original typically has a simple plot that it executes to mastery level. Gladiator's plot is almost straight Shakespeare. It doesn't need a big stunt like filling the Colliseum with water. And beyond that, no matter how many name actors you cram into it, you're never going to recapture or approach the perfection of Crowe and Phoenix at that stage of their careers.

As for Kanye, maybe he's a music genius, but did we already forgive him for saying the Holocaust never happened and identifying as a Nazi fewer than 2 years ago? Cuz **** that guy.

Best I can gather of the plot…

- Paul Mescal plays a grown up Lucius from the first movie.

- From Vanity Fair: "As Gladiator II picks up her story, decades have passed and Lucius has come of age far away from his mother. While he was still a child, Lucilla sent him to the northern coast of Africa, to a region called Numidia that was (at that point) just outside the reach of the Roman Empire. He never fully understood why, and as he grew stronger, so did his resentment - even if his mother's reasons had been pure."

- Pedro Pascal plays Roman General Acacius.

- Acacius looks to lead an army to capture Numidia, which Lucius is defending.

- Lucius loses the love of his life in battle, and is then captured by Acacius' army.

- Denzel Washington plays Macrinu, "an arms dealer who lives lavishly and keeps a stable of gladiators for sport."

- Macrinu singles out Lucius (wanting to use him as his "instrument," but to what end?), and Lucius rises from slave to gladiator, motivated by rage/revenge against Acacius.

- In doing so, Lucius lies to Macrinu about his true identity ("I never knew my mother nor my father.").

- Along the way, General Acacius seems to grow a conscience of some sort, wary of all of the needless war, potentially defies the emperor brothers in some way, and is then sent to the gladiator arena as punishment, where he ultimately faces off against Lucius.

- Given Acacius' potential change of heart, I'm guessing that maybe he and Lucius ultimately team up in the end to take down the emperor brothers in some way?

Feel free to add/amend if I've missed anything.

You forgot the part where Kanye West's "Power" plays as the gladiators enter the area and the crowd "ohhhs" along to the music

Faustus said:

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At least there were no chariots jumping over the shark infested waters in the trailer.

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The rhino was bad enough. I expected Legolas to make a cameo.

Falcon74 said:

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I couldn't care less about the music for this trailer. My excitement went from a 10 to 0. Looks like a trailer for one of those sequels to 300 that I will never watch either.

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Hey, at least the sequel to 300 had Eva Green's tits to somewhat make it worthwhile.

Could that there will almost certainly be some power struggle between the co-Emperors that will be going down simultaneously.

Roman History spoilers from between Gladiator 1 to Gladiator 2 + what could happen in the film.

Following Commodus's death (he was assassinated by a wrestler) there was no blood heir to the Roman Empire much like the movie. This ended the NervaAntonine bloodline. Following his death in 193, there were 5 men who claimed to be emperor. 2 of them were killed within a few months and the guy who claimed the title of Caesar was Septimius Severus. He ruled as co-Emperor with another guy (Clodius) while also fighting a civil war against the 5th claimant.

After the 5th claimant was killed, Septimius and Clodius turned on each other and Septimius won.

Septimius had 2 sons named Caracalla & Geta who are both in the movie. When Septimius died in while conquering up in Britain in 211, his sons had already been co-Emperors, but they basically turned on each other immediately. In less than a year, Caracalla had his brother assassinated in his mother's arms by the Praetorian guard. (I think this could/will be in the movie or at least the feud).

Caracalla also had Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and Lucius (Paul Mescal) executed in 211 as well. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out on the big screen or if the deviate (which is totally fine)

Never thought this trailer would remind me of this

Yeah, surely something like that is part of it. There has to be a reason they went with brothers, as opposed to just one emperor again, and a power struggle of some sort between them would certainly make the most sense.

Again, is the simple, straightforward, "hero's journey" plot of the first movie preferable? Yes.

But to differentiate this version, I *also* honestly really like the idea of having multiple competing interests, and each of the main players all having a different angle. It feels very Game of Thrones in that way...

- Two emperor brothers possibly vying for power.

- Denzel's arms dealer character with his own power play/scheme.

- Pascal's General character caught in the middle, with a potential change of heart/eventual goal of his own.

- And then, of course, Mescal's character gunning for Pascal's character.

If they can pull it off, having each of these power/revenge plays all essentially blossom/come to fruition at the same time, it could be really cool to see, and make for a hell of a finale.

I don't care if it's a good song or not. That was an awful choice for a gladiator trailer. Just truly awful and did not fit at all.

I love trailer music and that was just a 1/10 selection and didn't work.

James Forsyth said:

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Faustus said:

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At least there were no chariots jumping over the shark infested waters in the trailer.

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The rhino was bad enough. I expected Legolas to make a cameo.

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With better music

FightinTexasAg15 said:

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With better music

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This is 100 times better

Damn, opinions are funny. I was only slightly interested in this . . . until I saw the trailer. Now I'm pretty amped.

And I loved the song choice for the trailer. No, there won't be a bunch of Jay Z / Kanye in the actual movie. But I loved how No Church in the Wild worked for the trailer.