Four years since achieving lockdown stardom in "Normal People", Paul Mescal is preparing for the biggest test of his movie star mettle when "Gladiator II" is released later this year. The County Kildare actor will star as Lucius in the sequel to Ridley Scott's swords-and-sandals epic, which earned $465.4m at the global box office in 2000 and won the Oscar for Best Picture the following year.
The sequel's $300m budget would suggest that studio Paramount has faith that the film will be a major hit when it is released this November. Mescal leads a cast that includes Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen and Joseph Quinn in his first major Hollywood blockbuster. Dublin's Barry Keoghan also had a role in the film before dropping out due to other commitments.
A trailer released last week showed Mescal fighting in a naval battle, against a rhino in Rome's famous Colosseum and plotting with Washington's character against Rome's leaders. Since Normal People, the 28-year-old has starred in films such as "The Lost Daughter", "Foe", "All of Us Strangers", and "Aftersun", for which he was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a struggling Dad. Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish! Mescal also featured in the recent West End production of "A Streetcar Named Desire".
Daria Cercek, the head of the "Gladiator II" Paramount's motion picture group, said the studio cast Mescal after witnessing the audience's reaction to him removing his shirt i.