Draped in flowy silk capes and adorned with rattling, chunky gold, and silver rings, Denzel Washington embodies the flashiest villain and the colosseum’s bullpen organizer, Macrinus. In ...

In real life, Macrinus reigned for just over a year and was known as the first Emperor who never visited Rome during his time in power, marking another difference between real history and Gladiator 2.

Gladiator 2 takes place 16 years after the events of 2000’s Gladiator and revolves around a grown-up Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal), AKA Hanno. Over time, he becomes a slave, a gladiator, and the ...

In 2000, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator redefined the modern epic, catapulting Russell Crowe to Oscar glory and reviving Rome’s blood-stained mythology for the ...

In Gladiator 2, Lucius is spotted by Macrinus (Denzel Washington) when he kills a rabid ape in an arena fight. Macrinus buys him and begins to use his talent to win bets against Senator Thraex ...

Macrinus’ motif was a clue to his true intentions. Production designer Arthur Max, who worked on the first “Gladiator” film, knew Macrinus would need a visual motif.

Ridley Scott says Denzel Washington’s Macrinus ‘is very close to Trump’ in Gladiator 2 The four-time Academy Award nominee opened the conversation by explaining Macrinus’ rich backstory.

Washington plays the villainous Macrinus in Gladiator 2, starring opposite Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, and Fred Hechinger.

As Macrinus, Washington delivers his lines and flashes that smile as only he can, playing a character who we know from the beginning is sketchy. But Macrinus’ disdain for the bloodthirsty regime ...

While Gladiator 2 has intense scenes, often powered by the behemoth that is Denzel Washington, the character of Macrinus is not enough to match up to the number of visceral and amped-up scenes of ...