Sir Ridley Scott wants to make Gladiator 3

Sir Ridley Scott is "already toying with" plans for 'Gladiator 3'.

The 86-year-old actor will release the sequel to his 2000 classic next month and he thinks the plot of the new film - which sees Paul Mescal take centre stage as Lucius as he enters the Colosseum to fight and return glory to Rome - has paved the way for another installment in the franchise to follow at a later date.

He told France's Premiere magazine: “With that, I’m already toying with the idea of ​​'Gladiator 3'. No, seriously! I’ve lit the fuse…

“The ending of 'Gladiator II' is reminiscent of 'The Godfather', with Michael Corleone finding himself with a job he didn’t want, and wondering, ‘Now, Father, what do I do?’ So the next [film] will be about a man who doesn’t want to be where he is.”

Ridley recently declared 'Gladiator II' to be one of his best ever films.

He told Empire magazine: "It’s the best thing I’ve ever made ... One of the best things. I’ve made a few good ’uns."

This comes after the filmmaker revealed the project – which also stars Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal and Joseph Quinn – boasts the "biggest action sequence" of his entire career, even bigger than his 2023 historical drama 'Napoleon'.

He explained: "We begin the film with probably the biggest action sequence I’ve ever done. [It's] probably bigger than anything in 'Napoleon'."

Meanwhile, in 2023, Ridley revealed that he decided to make 'Gladiator II' because it made sense "economically".

The award-winning director told Deadline: "I thought the [first] film was, as it were, completely satisfactory, creatively complete, so why muck with it, right?

"But these cycles keep going on and on and on, they repeat globally for the last 20 years. It started to spell itself out as an obvious thing to do, and that’s how it evolved."