Russell Crowe explains why he was spotted near Gladiator 2 set

‘It was like a time warp,’ Maximus Decimus Meridius actor said

Russell Crowe has addressed rumours he will be in Gladiator 2 after being spotted near the film’s set.

The Kiwi actor played Maximus Decimus Meridius in Ridley Scott’s 2000 Best Picture winner, a sequel to which is currently being filmed.

There have been several reports that Crowe will feature in the film as a cameo, heightened by the actor’s recent presence in Malta, where the film is being shot.

Crowe has bluntly claimed he will not be in the film as his character died in the original, and he reiterated this during an appearance at the Czech film festival in Karlovy Vary.

In fact, Crowe said he “was in Malta recently” for another reason entirely: he was performing a concert with his band, Indoor Garden Party.

Crowe did tell outlets, including Deadline, he got nostalgic, though, when he spotted the film’s set, which he said was identical to the one built back in the late 19990s for the original Gladiator.

“I looked across to Fort Ricasoli, and the Colosseum’s been built there again, just like it was in 1999,” he said, adding: “I tell you, man, it was like a time warp — for a couple of seconds there, I was like, ‘What year is this? Where are we?’

“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting that that they would rebuild the Colosseum in the exact same place,” he said.

Addressing the sequel, which is set to star Paul Mescal as Lucius, the son of Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla and the nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), Crowe said: “I don’t know anything about the cast, I don’t know anything about the plot. Well, I wouldn’t, would I? ‘Cause I’m dead!

“But I just know that whoever’s involved in that movie, if Ridley has decided to do a second part of that story 24 years later, he will have really strong reasons to do so. And it’s very typical of him, really, to rethink everything that he’s done and know how to make it better.

Russell Crowe was recently spotted near ‘Gladiator 2’ set (Getty Images)

Crowe continued: “So, I would say that, now, I couldn’t think of that movie being anything less than absolutely spectacular.”

The actor recalled a “conversation: he had with Scott, whom he’s worked with five times, on the production of their last film.

“We were in a valley looking up at a castle that he’d had built, and we both knew that, with the advent of the comic-book tentpole movies, it was highly likely to be the last time that we were going to be on a set together with that level of physical production,” Crowe said, stating: “And that’s the way it actually worked out.”

He said that, based on what he saw in Malta, Scott is “getting to go back into that same level of physical production one more time”, which he said was ‘fantastic”.

“We have a similar energy, really, Ridley and I,” he said. “We know it’s all about the movie – everything that we do on a daily basis is just about making the movie – and one of these days we’ll get to do another one. Hopefully. We’ll see.”

Crowe recently admitted to being “slightly jealous” of Mescal after he was cast as the lead in Gladiator 2. The film will also star Nielsen, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal and Stranger Things breakout Joseph Quinn.