Paramount has already set a release date for the Gladiator sequel! It will hit theaters on November 22, 2024, the weekend before Thanksgiving next year. Paul is set to star as Lucius, the son of Maximus’ lover Lucilla, who was played by Connie Nielsen in the first movie.

As Justin Kroll first reported, Mescal isn’t replacing Russell Crowe’s Maximus from the first film, who died. He’s playing Lucius, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), who now is a grown man as the story takes place years after the first film ended. Lucius also was the nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the son of Roman leader Marcus Aurelius, who murdered his father seized the throne. Commodus wound up in the gladiator ring with Maximus — who, though mortally wounded, skewered the emperor before fading into the great beyond to reunite with his slain wife and son. Maximus saved the boy and his mother while avenging his own family, and left a strong impression on the young Lucius.

Nov. 22 is the weekend before Thanksgiving 2024. No other tentpoles are currently scheduled on the date. Gladiator 2 will precede the Nov. 27 theatrical release of an untitled Disney animated film.

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Paul is set to star in an adaptation of Hamnet for Amblin Partners. He will join Jessie Buckley, who was also Paul’s co-star in The Lost Daughter.

Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are in talks to star in an adaptation of Hamnet for Amblin Partners, Hera Pictures, Neal Street Productions and Book of Shadows. Chloé Zhao will direct the film based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, who will adapt the script with Zhao.

The New York Times bestselling historical fiction novel imagines the story of Agnes – the wife of the world’s most famous writer, William Shakespeare – as she struggles to come to terms with the loss of her only son, Hamnet. The novel charts the emotional, familial and artistic consequences of that loss, bringing to life a human and heart-stopping story as the backdrop to the creation of The Bard’s Hamlet.

Hamnet won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Fiction Prize at the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. 

Liza Marshall of Hera Pictures and Pippa Harris and Sam Mendes are producing the adaptation on behalf of Neal Street, who produced the Oscar-winning World War I pic 1917 along with Amblin. Nic Gonda is executive producing on behalf of Book of Shadows. Jeb Brody, Amblin’s president of production, and Mia Maniscalco, SVP Creative Affairs, will oversee the project on behalf of the studio.

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