Ridley Scott shares his thoughts on the upcoming Gladiator II Film!

In conversation exclusively with MENSCHEN in Alien: Romulus At the premiere on Monday, August 12, the 86-year-old filmmaker gave a glimpse of what fans can expect from the sequel to the May 2000 original.

“It’s as good as the first one,” Scott tells PEOPLE. “I didn’t say better. It’s just as good.”

Gladiator II is scheduled to be released on November 22, 2024, with Paul Mescal in the lead role and Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington in supporting roles.

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The first gladiator won five Oscars at the 2001 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Crowe)

It tells the story of Maximus (Russell Crowe), a Roman general who falls victim to a coup by the evil Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix).

Maximus is then forced into slavery and fights his way up as a gladiator to take revenge on Commodus, who killed his family.

Gladiator II will follow on from the previous events when Commodus’ nephew Lucius (Mescal) resumes his fight.

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“I thought the (first) movie was sort of completely satisfactory, creatively complete, so why tinker with it, right?” Scott told Deadline in November 2023. “But these cycles go on and on, they’ve been repeating themselves around the world for 20 years. It started to seem like an obvious thing to do, and that’s how it evolved.”

In July, Paramount Pictures released the trailer for the film. Fans caught a glimpse of Mescal’s Lucius as he entered the fighting ring in the Colosseum.

The trailer also announced a fight between the characters of Mescal and Pascal – and a gladiator fight with a rhinoceros.