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Denzel Washington Has His Gladiator 2 Replacement Lined Up & It’s Very Exciting After His Macrinus Performance

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Denzel Washington Has His Gladiator 2 Replacement Lined Up & It’s Very Exciting After His Macrinus Performance

2-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington already has his sights set on his next role after playing the cunning merchant Macrinus in Gladiator II. Following the highly anticipated release of Gladiator II on November 22, 2024, the epic blockbuster sequel has received mostly positive reviews and a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 72%. Paul Mescal leads the cast of Gladiator II alongside Washington, Pedro Pascal, and Connie Nielsen, who reprises her role as Lucilla, the mother of Mescal’s Lucius. Gladiator II’s box office earned an impressive $55 million in its opening weekend and aims to hit $400 million worldwide in December.




Washington plays Macrinus, a brand-new character in the world of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator franchise who is a high-ranking and wealthy gladiator trader. Macrinus “supplies food for the armies in Europe, supplies wine and oil, makes steel, makes spears, weapons, cannons, and catapults. Instead of having a stable of racehorses, he has a stable of gladiators,” Scott told Vanity Fair. Washington’s performance as Macrinus has received high praise from critics and is already the heavy favorite for Best Supporting Actor at the 2025 Oscars. Washington, who also recently produced the Oscar contender The Piano Lesson, has shown no signs of slowing down.

Gladiator II
is currently playing in theaters.



Denzel Washington’s Upcoming Hannibal Movie Could Be His Gladiator 2 Replacement

Gladiator is set to star in a new historical action epic

Denzel Washington as Macrinus looking serious in Gladiator 2

Washington is teaming up with Training Day and Equalizer director Antoine Fuqua once again for the upcoming film about the ancient Carthaginian general Hannibal. According to Variety, the currently untitled Netflix feature “will be written by John Logan, the three-time Academy Award winner who scribed Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator.” The film’s official logline reads, “based on real-life warrior Hannibal, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in history. The film covers the pivotal battles he led against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War.”


Based on similar themes and time periods, it sounds like Washington already has his perfect Gladiator II follow-up ready to go. According to Britannica, Hannibal was “a Carthaginian general, one of the great military leaders of antiquity, who commanded the Carthaginian forces against Rome in the Second Punic War (218–201 bce) and who continued to oppose Rome and its satellites until his death.” This would place Washington back in the star role of a historical epic blockbuster after his memorable supporting role in Gladiator II, which only required him for a few combat scenes.

Denzel Washington’s Performance As Macrinus Makes The Hannibal Movie So Much More Exciting

Macrinus is outstanding in Gladiator II but is limited to a supporting role


Macrinus is undeniably one of the greatest characters in Gladiator II and one of the best roles of Washington’s illustrious career. Washington unsurprisingly stole just about every scene he was a part of in Gladiator II, bringing a larger-than-life protagonist feel in a supporting role that could earn him his third acting Oscar. Washington’s command is one of his greatest gifts as an actor and is felt throughout every frame he’s a part of in Gladiator II. Even among a strong ensemble, Washington delivers the greatest overall performance in Gladiator II, which makes his upcoming Hannibal film all the more exciting.

The untitled Denzel Washington Hannibal film is only one of several anticipated upcoming projects from director and producer Antoine Fuqua. He is an executive producer on The Terminal List prequel series Dark Wolf, which is expected to be released sometime next year. Fuqua is also set to direct an untitled series about Sammy the Bull, a notorious mobster from New York in a collaboration with Oscar-nominated writer Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street, The Sopranos). All things considered, Washington and Fuqua still have plenty of promising titles in the works even outside of their Hannibal project.


Hannibal Solves Gladiator 3’s Denzel Washington Problem

He won’t return as Macrinus is the eventual Gladiator 3

Macbeth (Denzel Washington) quizzically looking to the side in The Tragedy of Macbeth
A24

The upcoming Habbinal project satisfies one of the biggest problems for the future of the Gladiator franchise since Washington’s Macrinus won’t be able to be a part of it. Due to the ending of Gladiator II, in which Lucius has an epic showdown with Macrinus and reclaims Rome as its rightful heir, Macrinus won’t be able to return to the eventual Gladiator 3, much like Crowe’s Maximus and Phoenix’s Commodus weren’t able to reprise their roles from the original film.


Even though Washington won’t be in the third Gladiator film (if it happens), his anticipated leading role in the Hannibal feature sounds like the next best thing. The announcement of the film has already sparked controversy in Tunisia, where the actual Hannibal was from. According to Variety, “there are complaints about depicting the Carthaginian general as a Black African being made in the media and the Tunisian parliament.” Despite this backlash, Washington and Fuqua appear to be moving forward with their historical epic and hope to carry Washington’s potentially Oscar-winning momentum from Gladiator II into what is poised to be yet another great role for the actor.

Sources: Variety, Britannica

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