Paul Mescal’s Villain Origin Story Takes Shape in New ‘Gladiator II’ Trailer

Paul Mescal‘s Lucius is just like his father in the latest trailer for Ridley Scott‘s Gladiator II. In the new clip from the film, the sources of the gladiator’s hunger for vengeance and violence are revealed as he battles inside and outside of the Colosseum.

“I don’t fight for power,” Lucius states in the trailer. “I fight to free Rome from men like them.” A moment later, the fighter shoots an arrow directly in the direction of Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), the ruling leaders who invaded Lucius’ home and forced him into slavery. That invasion was helmed by Pedro Pascal‘s Marcus Acacius, a Roman general who trained under Lucius’ father, Maximus.

The overtaking — and the loss of his family and home along the way — instilled rage in the gladiator. And Denzel Washington‘s Macrinus, a power broker and arms dealer, is set on pushing Lucius to make good use of that anger. “Never let it go. It will care you to greatness,” he tells him as he makes his new fighter an offer: “I own you now, but whose head could I give you to satisfy your fury?” Understandably, he wants Marcus.

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That fury has changed Lucius, so much so that his own mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) doesn’t recognize him when he enters the colosseum for battle. In the trailer, she pushes him to turn inward to find his power: “Take your father’s strength. His name was Maximus, and I see him in you.”

Gladiator II arrives in theaters on Nov. 22, picking up decades after the events of the original Gladiator. “Sequels are always kind of suspect,” Scott told the Associated Press earlier this month. “But to begin with, we had a good logical stepping stone into [who’s] next, who survived and where did he go.”