Every good arena spectacle needs its villain. Gladiator had Joaquin Phoenix’s weaselly Commodus. BBC favourite gameshow Gladiators had Wolf. Now, Ridley Scott’s next Roman epic, Gladiator II, is doubling the hissable-baddie quotient: make way for mad Emperors Geta and Caracalla, twins with insatiable egos who delight in the brutal bloodshed of the Colosseum’s gladiatorial combat. Together – played by Joseph Quinn (the Stranger Things 4 breakout who recently excelled in A Quiet Place: Day One, next to be The Fantastic Four’s Johnny Storm) and Fred Hechinger – they’re going to make life particularly difficult for Paul Mescal’s incoming fighter Lucius.
“For obvious reasons, Joaquin Phoenix’s performance was something that was in our minds,” Quinn tells Empire, speaking on behalf of Hechinger too. “It was something we had a reverence for, but we didn’t want to.... soil with some kind of poor rendition.” Instead, they drew from other performances of delectable, unapologetic villainy – ones you can’t help but get swept up in, even when rooting for the hero. Among them? Philip Seymour Hoffman’s dreaded Davian in Mission: Impossible III, the man who famously put an explosive charge in Ethan Hunt’s head. See also: “Gary Oldman in The Fifth Element!” says Quinn. “He has this relish for being horrible.”
In Ridley Scott’s mind, the twisted twins not only draw from history, but from Roman mythology too. “They are probably the equivalent of Romulus and Remus,” the filmmaker explains. “You know, the two lunatics who formed Rome but were bred from the milk of a wolf? [Caracalla and Geta] came up a different way but were probably brain-damaged.” Bring on the boos.
Read Empire’s full world-exclusive Gladiator II cover feature – speaking to Ridley Scott, writer David Scarpa, and stars Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, and Joseph Quinn – in the October 2024 issue, on sale Thursday 29 August. Pre-order a copy online here. Gladiator II comes to UK cinemas from 15 November.