Aidan Monaghan / Paramount Pictures / DreamWorks Pictures
"Gladiator II" doesn't end on a cliffhanger, but there may still be room for another sequel.
The new movie battles with "Wicked" for the top spot at the box office this week after both films premiered in the US on the same day.
Scott, who directed the first two movies, told Total Film in October that he had started a script. "I've already got eight pages. I've got the beginning of a very good footprint," Scott said.
Spoilers ahead for "Gladiator" and "Gladiator II."
Cuba Scott/Paramount Pictures
The first film, which premiered in 2000 and won 5 Oscars, followed a Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe), an honorable Roman general whose wife and child are killed when a new emperor takes power.
After becoming a highly favored gladiator, Maximus takes part in a failed coup to turn Rome into a democracy. When this fails, the emperor mortally wounds Maximus and challenges him in the Colosseum, where they both die.
As Maximus is dying, he encourages the people to follow the dream of the old emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), Aurelius' daughter, then gives a rousing speech that Maximus' death should not be in vain.
Rome is still a mess in "Gladiator II," set 16 years after the first film.
The sequel replicates many of the first film's beats, with a few new developments.
Instead of one tyrannical emperor, there are twins: Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and Geta (Joseph Quinn).
But the real twist is that both antagonists are killed by the real villain, Marcinus (Denzel Washington), a power broker who breeds chaos to take over Rome.
Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), the new lead general and Lucilla's new husband, organizes a coup against the emperors, as Maximus did.
Like in the first film, the coup is cut short, and Acacius is killed in the Colosseum.
Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures
The sequel's protagonist is Lucilla's son, Lucius (Paul Mescal). After the first film, Lucilla sends her son beyond the empire for his own safety, which makes him hate Rome and his mother.
At the film's beginning, Rome attacks Lucius' new home. He is captured, becomes a gladiator, and learns from his mother that his father was Maximus.
Lucius eventually accepts his role as a leader when he hears his mother will be executed for her part in Acacius' coup. He sends a messenger to Acacius' militia to storm Rome and leads a group of gladiators to break from their prison and try to save Lucilla.
The gladiators overpower the Roman guards, but Marcinus kills Lucilla before riding out of the Colosseum to face Acacius' militia with his own army. Lucius gives chase and defeats Marcinus before the two armies can attack each other.
Lucius then wins over both armies with an inspirational speech about how he will rebuild Rome just as father, Maximus, and grandfather, Aurelius, would have wanted.
The hero will stay alive this time to ensure Rome is restored to glory.
Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures
In the final scene of the sequel, Lucius returns to the Colosseum to see where his mother died and mourn his fallen loved ones.
Calling back to Maximus and Lucius' favorite ritual, Lucius picks up dirt on the ground, looks up to the heavens, and asks his father for advice. Then, there is a brief shot of a hand touching a wheat field before the movie ends.
It is unclear if the clip was footage re-used from the old film, or if it was shot again.
It is an ambiguous ending, but suggests Maximus' spirit is still around to help Lucius.
Fans of the first film may remember that wheat fields in the first film symbolized the afterlife. Throughout the film, the audience sees glimpses of this wheatfield, and when Maximus dies, we see him fully in the field, walking to his wife and child.
Since Lucius is still alive and seemingly the new emperor of Rome, a third film could explore his attempts to save Rome and the new villains who will rise to stop him.
Mescal told Variety last week at the London premiere of "Gladiator II" that he would be "massively down" to appear in the next sequel.
