Paul Mescal faces off with Pedro Pascal in Gladiator II trailer

Hannah Roberts, PA Entertainment Reporter

Irish actor Paul Mescal can be seen facing off against Pedro Pascal in the trailer for Sir Ridley Scott’s highly anticipated Gladiator sequel.

Normal People star Mescal (28) plays a grown-up Lucius in the film, the nephew of Commodus, the original film’s antagonist – played by Joaquin Phoenix.

Mescal’s character was portrayed as a child in the original Gladiator movie, about a Roman general, played by Russell Crowe, who ends up in slavery after the murder of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Starring in Gladiator II is Pascal as Marcus Acacius, Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn as Emperor Geta, The White Lotus’s Fred Hechinger as Emperor Caracalla, Oscar-winner Denzel Washington as Macrinus, and Connie Nielsen, who also starred in the original film, as Lucilla.

The trailer includes clips from the original film, with Lucius referencing the moment he saw Maximus, played by Crowe, defeat Commodus.

“I remember that day. I never forgot it. That a slave could take revenge against an emperor”, he says.

Washington’s character, Macrinus, presents Lucius with the opportunity to become a gladiator and tells him that his rage is his “gift”.

Later on in the trailer, Lucius is seen facing off against a rhino with a bloodied horn being ridden by a man in armour wielding a weapon in one hand.

He also engages in a fight with Marcus Acacius shortly following a clip where he tells Macrinus that he wants the general’s head.

Gladiator II will arrive in cinemas in November.