Wire report
Was Paul Mescal being ‘not masculine enough’ the reason Gladiator II flopped?
Mescal’s nuanced performance in Ridley Scott’s belated sequel has been blamed by some for the film’s box office underperformance. May I suggest Jason Statham for Gladiator III? As you may be aware, The Dog Stars has not been particularly well received. Reviews have been lukewarm to poor and in its opening weekend, Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller came in fifth, after Spider-Man and The Odyssey (both of which have been out for ever), the sixth Insidious movie and a Looney Tunes film that originally wasn’t even going to be released . Perhaps unexpectedly, people are now casting around looking to assign blame for the failure. In the lead up to the film, Josh Brolin said that he almost left the project due to Scott’s lack of rehearsal time. Perhaps there’s also a prosaic explanation, in that The Dog Stars is such a vague title for a film that audiences didn’t know if they were going
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Mescal’s nuanced performance in Ridley Scott’s belated sequel has been blamed by some for the film’s box office underperformance. May I suggest Jason Statham for Gladiator III? As you may be aware, The Dog Stars has not been particularly well received. Reviews have been lukewarm to poor and in its opening weekend, Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller came in fifth, after Spider-Man and The Odyssey (both of which have been out for ever), the sixth Insidious movie and a Looney Tunes film that originally wasn’t even going to be released . Perhaps unexpectedly, people are now casting around looking to assign blame for the failure. In the lead up to the film, Josh Brolin said that he almost left the project due to Scott’s lack of rehearsal time. Perhaps there’s also a prosaic explanation, in that The Dog Stars is such a vague title for a film that audiences didn’t know if they were going
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What happened
According to The Guardian’s source item, Was Paul Mescal being ‘not masculine enough’ the reason Gladiator II flopped?, Mescal’s nuanced performance in Ridley Scott’s belated sequel has been blamed by some for the film’s box office underperformance. May I suggest Jason Statham for Gladiator III? As you may be aware, The Dog Stars has not been particularly well received. Reviews have been lukewarm to poor and in its opening weekend, Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller came in fifth, after Spider-Man and The Odyssey (both of which have been out for ever), the sixth Insidious movie and a Looney Tunes film that originally wasn’t even going to be released . Perhaps unexpectedly, people are now casting around looking to assign blame for the failure. In the lead up to the film, Josh Brolin said that he almost left the project due to Scott’s lack of rehearsal time. Perhaps there’s also a prosaic explanation, in that The Dog Stars is such a vague title for a film that audiences didn’t know if they were going
Context
The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-09-02T14:36:11+00:00.
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Source
Primary source: Was Paul Mescal being ‘not masculine enough’ the reason Gladiator II flopped? via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.
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- Was Paul Mescal being ‘not masculine enough’ the reason Gladiator II flopped?The Guardian - 2026-09-02T14:36:11+00:00
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