Ridley Scott's Two-Part Historical Action Epic Will Hit A New Streamer In October
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 action epic franchise will soon make a home out of a major streamer, and the potential for it to start trending nationwide is there. Scott is a director who has helmed many iconic movies over the years. While it is true that some of his recent work has faltered, with the recent release of the post-apocalyptic thriller The Dog Stars proving itself a box office bomb in theaters, the director is still tied to quite a few hits. In the sci-fi genre, like The Dog Stars, Scott is behind one of the biggest movie franchises of all time, Alien.
Scott has also helmed iconic sci-fi movies like Harrison Ford's Blade Runner and Matt Damon's The Martian. That said, the director's career extends to other genres, with action being one Scott has found enormous success in over the years. Black Hawk Down is an action-packed, frenetic war movie that never lets up, with other Scott releases like Body of Lies, the star-studded action thriller with names like Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe confirming the director's knack for the action genre. It was by directing Crowe that Scott started the epic Gladiator franchise, and it is that universe that will be released on a new streaming service.
Ridley Scott's Gladiator Franchise Is Coming To Conquer Netflix
Both of Scott's Gladiator movies are coming to Netflix on October 21. That includes 2000's Gladiator, the original movie starring Crowe as Maximus, who fights his way back from being made a slave to an epic gladiator in search of revenge, and 2024's Gladiator II, Scott's return to the franchise that was led by Paul Mescal as Lucius, the son of Crowe's Maximus and Connie Nielsen as Lucilla. The two Gladiator movies are part of the exciting roster of new films and TV shows coming to Netflix in October. On the same day, Emma Mackey's Emily Brontë movie, Emily, also arrives on Netflix.
Scott's two-part Gladiator franchise comes with several big names attached to it, including quite a few streaming favorites. Gladiator II actors like Pedro Pascal, with The Last of Us on HBO Max and Disney+'s The Mandalorian franchise, Denzel Washington, with several action thrillers, Joseph Quinn, with Netflix's Stranger Things and The Fantastic Four: First Steps on Disney+, and more have a proven track record on streaming services.
Add that to the fact that Crowe, the main star of the original Gladiator, is not only a strong name on streaming, but also part of the cast of 2026's Unabomber, Netflix's new #1 movie in the United States, and the action epic franchise is set to dominate Netflix's charts once it debuts.
Is A Third Movie On Its Way?
Scott's Gladiator II took 24 years to finally be released, after the director had talked about different ideas in the decades that took for the film to get made. However, it might not take as long for Gladiator III to happen. In August 2025, Scott told The Guardian that another Gladiator movie was "in process" at the time.
Since then, Gladiator II star Mescal has made it seem like he is in no rush to get back. Speaking in January to The Guardian, Mescal claimed his plan was to start rationing roles and that he did not want to star in as many projects on the huge scale of Gladiator II. It remains to be seen whether he would be game to return as Lucius in a future Gladiator installment, but perhaps the franchise seeing success on Netflix could fast-track a third film.
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Gladiator follows Maximus, a Roman general betrayed by the new emperor Commodus. After escaping execution, he is enslaved and becomes a gladiator. Set in ancient Rome, the story portrays his struggle for survival and quest for vengeance as he battles for his freedom in the arena.
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Lucius enters the Colosseum after Rome’s oppressive emperors destroy his home and tighten their grip on the empire. Haunted by the memory of Maximus and fueled by vengeance, he searches for the strength and honor needed to oppose corruption. His journey becomes a fight not only for survival, but also for the future and dignity of Rome.
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