Denzel Washington in Talks to Join Gladiator 2 Cast

Just a day after Barry Keoghan was said to be in talks to star in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel, iconic actor Denzel Washington has been revealed to be in negotiations to join the upcoming second movie.

Deadline is reporting that Washington, who worked with Scott on 2007’s American Gangster, is in final negotiations to star alongside Paul Mescal in the Scott-directed follow-up to the original Academy Award-winning movie, which is set to be released in theaters on November 22, 2024.

Scott will once again direct the sequel to Gladiator. It’s the director’s next project after finishing Napoleon starring Joaquin Phoenix (who also starred in the original Gladiator). While a sequel has been hinted at for well over a decade, the current iteration started becoming a reality in 2018 after Paramount came on to help develop the project.

The script for the movie was written by David Scarpa. Producing the Gladiator sequel will be Scott and Scott Free president Michael Pruss, alongside Red Wagon Entertainment’s Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher. Universal also has the right to partner on the project once it is packaged as they co-produced the original along with DreamWorks. Other crew returning from the original movie are costume designer Janty Yates and production designer Arthur Max.