Netflix Is On Fire With Ridley Scott's Long-Awaited Historical War Epic

Published Oct 23, 2026, 10:48 AM EDT

Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

Ridley Scott's historical epic might have taken a long time to arrive, but the long-awaited movie is now a Netflix sensation. Scott has helmed several high-profile movies over the years. After all, the director etched his name in history with some of the most iconic movie franchises of all time. In the sci-fi genre, Scott's name will always be among the top directors, having helmed Harrison Ford's Blade Runner — the cyberpunk franchise returns in November with Prime Video's Blade Runner 2099 series — Matt Damon's The Martian, Sigourney Weaver's Alien, and more. That said, Scott's career extends itself to many other genres.

Among those are historical dramas, of which Scott has directed a few. In fact, his directorial debut, 1977's The Duellists, came from that genre. Over the years, Scott returned to that well of ideas for movies like 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Joaquin Phoenix's Napoleon, the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's The Last Duel, and more. That said, Scott's most iconic historical drama has to be 2000's Gladiator, the action epic starring Russell Crowe that defined a generation. After a long wait, 24 years, Scott returned to the franchise with 2024's Gladiator II. Now, it is that historical war epic that is taking over Netflix.

Scott's Gladiator 2 Is An Instant Netflix Champion

At the time of writing, Gladiator II is the most popular movie on Netflix's Top 10 Movies chart in the United States, according to FlixPatrol data. The Gladiator sequel racked up $462.2 million at the global box office back when it was released in 2024, starring Paul Mescal as Lucius Verus Aurelius, aka the son of Crowe's Maximus. Gladiator II has become an instant streaming sensation, as both the sequel and Scott's original Gladiator arrived on Netflix on October 21. While the original has yet to join the streamer's nationwide chart, Gladiator II did so instantly, debuting at #1 a day later.

Gladiator II dethroned a Scott collaborator, as Affleck's Animals, a Netflix Original crime thriller, fell to 2nd on the streamer in the US. Gladiator II also ranks higher on Netflix in the US than movies like Hot Wheels Let's Race: Attack of the T-Rex, Chris Evans' recent release Sacrifice, Terry McMillan Presents: Preach, Pray, Love, Robert Pattinson's Twilight, The Fate of the Furious, and more. Gladiator II's streaming success on Netflix is likely aided by the fact that the historical drama holds a 70% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and a high 80% audience score, standing positively with critics and viewers.

The Historical War Epic Could Get Another Sequel

At the time of writing, a third Gladiator movie has yet to be formally announced. However, Scott plans for that film to happen. Talking to The Guardian in August 2025, Scott was directly asked if he would be making another Alien prequel and Gladiator 3. According to the director, the Gladiator II sequel was "in process right now." As such, the fact that Gladiator II has not only instantly become a Netflix sensation, but also dethroned Animals to lead the streamer's US chart, can only help boost the third movie's chances of making it to the big screen.