The latest episode of Saturday Night Live saw Paul Mescal turn Gladiator 2 into a musical – check out the moment below.
In the first episode of the show since the US Thanksgiving holiday show, Mescal hosted the long-running skit show for the first time. Performing alongside him was singer-songwriter and producer Shaboozey who was also marking his SNL debut.
One of the sketches on the show saw Mescal appear in a musical version of Gladiator 2, heavily influenced by the success of Wicked at the cinema. Indeed, Gladiator 2’s concurrent release with Wicked in the US prompted some to dub the phenomenon Glicked, in reference to last year’s Barbenheimer.
The sketch saw a trailer for a new Gladiator 2 with “50 minutes” more of musical content which saw Mescal singing about how he is misunderstood as a Gladiator: “They don’t know that far below I’m so much more.”
The skit kicked off with Kenan Thompson singing how there’s “No Place Like Rome” with Mescal agreeing he is “gonna like it here.”
Other SNL cast members joined in the musical, with Mikey Day playing Rome’s emperor while rapping a ditty that the hosts said was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. “I don’t mean to be a hater, but I don’t like this gladiator,” he sang.
The sketch ended with Mescal flying away from Rome’s Colosseum on a broom in a moment that parodied Wicked’s “Defying Gravity.” Check out the moment here:
Recently, Mescal addressed the possibility of returning for Gladiator 3, saying he would be “massively down” to star in it.
Ahead of the release of Gladiator 2, director Ridley Scott told The Hollywood Reporter that plans for a third film had already been put in place. “I’d rather get on into Gladiator 3. There’s already an idea,” he said at the time.
Mescal, who stars as Lucius in the newly-released sequel, has now expressed his interest in reprising his role. “Oh yeah, massively down,” he told Variety. “I don’t think it will be [24] years – but I have no idea when it will be.”
Reviewing Gladiator 2, NME‘s Alex Flood awarded the movie three stars and said: “If you loved Gladiator, it’s odds-on you’ll enjoy this too. It’s got all of the same exciting bits – swordfighting, rousing speeches, nasty poshos getting what they deserve.
“The problem is that’s all it gives you. You want to feel like you’re watching Maximus lift off his helmet and deliver that iconic monologue for the first time again. You want the thrill of a core memory being unlocked. You want to know you’ll be quoting Mescal’s lines to your mates in the pub for the next 10 years. Gladiator 2, piously respectful as it is, can only offer a faded memory of that experience. There was a dream that was Rome – and this is kind of it.”
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