Gladiator II is one of my best movies ever, says Sir Ridley Scott

Sir Ridley Scott believes 'Gladiator II' is "one of the best" movies of his career.

The 86-year-old filmmaker helmed the original 'Gladiator' movie back in 2000, and Ridley has now promised fans that they won't be disappointed by the new film.

Speaking to Empire, Ridley explained: "It’s the best thing I’ve ever made ... One of the best things. I’ve made a few good ’uns."

Paul Mescal plays the lead character in the much-anticipated new movie, and he relished the challenge of playing a physical role.

The 28-year-old actor - who first found international fame in the romantic drama series 'Normal People' - shared: "I had always had a kind of latent ambition to do something that was more muscular and physical.

"From a selfish side of things, I wanted to surprise an audience, because I knew that I have this kind of role within me. When this came up, I was like, ‘This is something that I don’t think anybody who’s seen the work that I’ve done previously will be expecting,’ and it’s Ridley Scott."

Ridley and Paul made a concerted effort to make the combat scenes feel realistic.

The actor explained: "We made an attempt to not feel slick. You’re feeling like their bodies are slowing down as they’re fighting. It’s not like ting-ting-ting! It’s more brutal. You’re feeling the fatigue."

Meanwhile, in 2023, Ridley revealed that he decided to make 'Gladiator II' because it made sense "economically".

The award-winning director told Deadline: "I thought the [first] film was, as it were, completely satisfactory, creatively complete, so why muck with it, right?

"But these cycles keep going on and on and on, they repeat globally for the last 20 years. It started to spell itself out as an obvious thing to do, and that’s how it evolved."