Ridley Scott's Action Epic Finds Redemption as the No. 1 Hit on Streaming

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Ridley Scott's long-awaited action epic hits Netflix and quickly becomes a No. 1 hit

Ridley Scott takes his sweet time when delivering on sequels. The acclaimed director, whose original post-apocalyptic thriller The Dog Stars comes to streaming this month, took 33 years before returning to the Alien franchise (for better or worse) with 2012's Prometheus. He turned around a sequel relatively quickly with 2017's Alien: Covenant. Before any of that, Scott directed a sequel to another filmmaker's work, releasing The Silence of the Lambs follow-up Hannibal in 2001.

In 2024, Scott finally gave audiences Gladiator II, the follow-up to his historical action-epic starring Russell Crowe as Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius and Joaquin Phoenix as the detestable emperor Commodus.

After a solid theatrical run and a streaming stint on Paramount Plus, Gladiator II is now on Netflix, where it's dominating the movie streaming charts in the U.S. Gladiator II was added to Netflix on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and after just a couple of days on the platform, it has taken over. During its Netflix debut weekend, Gladiator II knocked Ben Affleck's divisive thriller Animals out of the No. 1 spot on the world's biggest streaming platform.

Is Gladiator II any good?

Over the past 26 years, the original Gladiator has only grown in reverence as an eminently watchable story of revenge, thanks to strong performances from Crowe and Phoenix, and a cast that includes Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, and Richard Harris. Gladiator was met with critical and commercial acclaim at the time; the film grossed more than $460 million at the global box office, making it the year's second-highest-grossing film behind John Woo's Mission: Impossible 2. Gladiator won four Academy Awards at the 2001 ceremony, nabbing the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Actor (for Crowe), Best Sound, and Best Costume Design.

Obviously, that set the bar for Gladiator II pretty darn high. While the sequel is better than its predecessor in certain ways, Gladiator II certainly didn't hit the consistent highs of Scott's original action epic. As critic Matt Patches noted in his review of Gladiator II, the sequel "is actually a far better action movie than Gladiator, with leaner fights and wider-angled staging. (The 2000 movie, for all its Oscar glory, is a shaky-cam mess!) But as a showcase of throwback epic Hollywood acting, it’s all over the place. For all the genuine star power Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, and Connie Nielsen bring to the screen, Scott doesn’t bring them all together in a single coherent tale."

While Gladiator II didn't hit as hard as the original, audiences still showed up for the sequel. It ultimately earned $462 million worldwide, making it the 12th-highest-grossing film of 2024.

What is Gladiator II about?

According to the film's official synopsis, "Gladiator II continues the epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome. Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people."

Gladiator II also stars Pedro Pascal as General Acacius, Joseph Quinn as Emperor Geta, Fred Hechinger as Emperor Caracalla, and Denzel Washington as Macrinus. Connie Nielsen reprises her role as Lucilla from the original Gladiator. Ridley Scott directed the film based on a screenplay by David Scarpa, with a story by Peter Craig and David Scarpa.

Will there be a Gladiator III?

According to Scott, yes. In a Q&A with The Guardian last year, the 88-year-old director was asked about a possible Gladiator 3, to which Scott responded (somewhat vaguely), "Gladiator is in process right now." We haven't heard much about that supposed project since.

Scott just delivered The Dog Stars, which we described as "a post-apocalyptic odyssey like no other" in Polygon's review of the film. The Dog Stars is based on the 2012 book of the same name by Peter Heller and adapted by screenwriter Mark L. Smith (The Revenant). The film stars Jacob Elordi as Hig, one of the few remaining survivors on Earth, years after a deadly virus swept the planet. He lives on an old airfield with a former marine named Bangley (Josh Brolin).

"All things considered, they have a pretty good life — plenty of whiskey, cigarettes, bullets, and the safety of a secure perimeter — but Hig wants something more," entertainment editor Jake Kleinman wrote in his review. "He's obsessed with a faint radio message seemingly broadcast from a town called Grand Junction that he can only hear while flying up in the mountains. But Grand Junction is too far away to fly there and back on a single tank of gas, so he never makes the trip. Then, because this is a movie and things have to happen, eventually he does, setting off on an odyssey across the Rocky Mountain West and encountering new friends and allies along the way."

Ridley Scott is next adapting Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.