More than a year after Gladiator II released in cinemas, Russell Crowe has opened up about the sequel to the Oscar-winning film that defined his career. In a recent interview, Crowe said the creative team behind the sequel “did not actually understand what made the first one special”.

The actor said he was “slightly uncomfortable” with the idea of a sequel from the outset, adding, “Because, of course, I’m dead and I have no say in what gets done.”

Crowe, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Maximus in Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic, argued that Gladiator was driven by character rather than spectacle.

“It wasn’t the pomp. It wasn’t the circumstance. It wasn’t the action,” he told Australia’s Triple J radio. “It was the moral core”.

He said that during production of the original film, he regularly pushed back against studio pressure to alter Maximus’ character, particularly proposals involving additional romantic or sexual relationships.

According to Crowe, producers repeatedly suggested sex scenes, which he believed undermined the character’s loyalty to his murdered wife and son.

“You’re taking away his power,” Crowe said, as per the New York Post. “So, at the same time he had this relationship with his wife, he was f***ing this other girl? What are you talking about? It’s crazy.”

Crowe reserved his strongest criticism for a major plot twist in Gladiator II, that Maximus fathered an illegitimate son with Lucilla, played by Connie Nielsen. The sequel reveals Paul Mescal’s character, Lucius, to be Maximus’ child. Crowe says this contradicts the emotional and moral foundations of the original film.

Gladiator II stars Mescal alongside Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal and Nielsen. The film secured a single Academy Award nomination, for Best Costume Design, and grossed more than USD 462 million worldwide, slightly short of the original’s USD 465 million global haul in 2000.