Although Joaquin Phoenix has been professionally acting since 1982, in 2000, he hit a major milestone in his career with the release of Gladiator , where he played the antagonistic Commodus. That role netted him his first Oscar nomination, and more than two decades later, Gladiator II is just months away from hitting the 2024 release schedule and bringing moviegoers back to this version of the Roman Empire. However, because no one wanted to “spoil” Phoenix’s memorable Gladiator performance, Joseph Quinn, who plays Emperor Geta in the sequel, took notes on some other memorable fictional villains instead.
At this point in history, Quinn’s Geta rules Rome with his brother, Fred Hechinger’s Caracalla, and judging by the Gladiator II trailer , these two are just as despicable as Commodus, if not more so. That said, it was important that these two didn’t come off as carbon copies of Joaquin Phoenix’s character, with Quinn telling Empire : For obvious reasons, Joaquin Phoenix’s performance was something that was in our minds. It was something we had a reverence for, but we didn’t want to.
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soil with some kind of poor rendition. So with Commodus off the table, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger turned to other villains who are dastardly, unrepentant and, most importantly, audiences love to hate. Examples in the article included Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Davian from Mission: Impossible III and Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg from The Fifth Element, whom Quinn said has th.