Gladiator II star Paul Mescal opens up about the pressure of taking over from Russell Crowe

Paul Mescal has a "natural nervousness" to impress in ‘Gladiator II’.

The 28-year-old actor will be taking over the lead role from Russell Crowe - who played the Roman general Maximus in director Sir Ridley Scott’s 2000 historical epic - and though Mescal has insisted that although he has "a desire to deliver", he is mostly at ease because he has faith that the filmmaker will pull off another cinematic spectacle with the sequel.

When Screen Rant asked Mescal if he felt the pressure of fronting the film, he said: "Yes. Yes and no.

"Because it was Ridley at the centre of both of those stories, and he directed the first one with such brilliance that the fact that he was behind the camera on this filled me with confidence. But of course, there's a natural nervousness and a desire to deliver, but that's true of anything regardless of a legacy of a film that's preceded yours."

The upcoming blockbuster - which also stars Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn and Connie Nielsen - follows Lucius Verus (Mescal), the former heir to the Roman Empire who is forced into slavery and eventually pushed to fight in the Colosseum in an effort to restore glory to his home.

While Mescal is now at ease with the film - which hits cinemas on 15 November - the ‘Normal People’ actor previously admitted he was "s******* himself" on the first day of production before Scott put his nerves to rest.

During a Q+A session of the movie following a special screening in Los Angeles earlier this month (18.10.24), Paul was quoted by PEOPLE magazine as saying: "The first day on set was me and Pedro, and we were consciously kept in the tents, kind of outside of the city walls.

"We were sitting in the tents and I was smoking a cigarette, and we were kind of marching around the place and Ridley comes in with a cigar.

"I was absolutely s******* myself. And he looks at me and he goes, ‘You nervous?’ And I… didn't know what the appropriate answer was. So I was like, ‘Ah …’"

He explained the 86-year-old filmmaker patted him on the back and added: "He’s like, ‘Bang, your nerves are no f****** good to me.’ So [he] marches us out."