Gladiator 2 sees zombie Maximus lead undead army against Emperor

Ridley Scott has confirmed that Gladiator 2 will start filming imminently and will star Russell Crowe as a zombie Maximus, returned from his grave to wreak revenge.

“Obviously, I didn’t want to make another Gladiator picture until I had the right story,” said the directing legend.

“We originally thought that we could just start with Maximus in the shower and Lucilla realising that the events of the first film were just a dream, but that seemed a little hokey. Then we thought about the ghost of Maximus haunting the Emperor’s palace, but ghosts don’t really do a lot of fighting, then we had an idea that Maximus was a replicant who hunts down other replicants, but that just didn’t fit.

“So, then we hit on the idea of a zombie Maximus, and the whole story just clicked into place.”

The film begins with a series of lightning bolts striking Maximus’s grave, and the voiceover

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance NOW – AS UNDEAD ZOMBIE MAXIMUS

At which point, his decaying arm thrusts through the surface of the grave.

After zombie Maximus rises from the grave, he makes his way to the Colosseum and uses his zombie powers to raise all his old Gladiator friends from the dead, along with the various lions and tigers and giraffes.

With his undead army behind him, Maximus marches on the Emperor’s palace to have his revenge against Rome.

“We’re trying to do a lot less CGI this time, so we’ve rebuilt the Colosseum and we’ll be using over 500 real zombies so there’s going to be a real sense of scale up on the screen,” continued Scott.

“We’re confident it will be the biggest undead army attacking ancient Rome that has ever been put on screen.”

Gladiator: Back From the Grave will begin filming soon.