Having wrapped Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott’s riding the high of renewed interest in his revived movie franchise. The legendary director has already written the next installment in the prequel saga, and now he wants to go further back in time for an upcoming project. While at SXSW, Scott told Entertainment Weekly what he’d really like to do now is shoot another Gladiator movie. And look, he knows Maximus Decimus Meridius died and all (we apologize for spoiling the end of a 17-year-old movie), but he’s already worked out a plan for his resurrection: “I know how to bring him back. I was having this talk with the studio—‘but he’s dead.’ But there is a way of bringing him back.”
Scott wouldn’t elaborate on whether he’d go the prequel route again, and maybe detail Maximus’ warring exploits. He’s got some time to work things out, though, since he hasn’t lined up a studio or anything, or even confirmed Russell Crowe’s return. “Whether it will happen I don’t know,” Scott said. “Gladiator was 2000, so Russell’s changed a little bit. He’s doing something right now but I’m trying to get him back down here.” Crowe has shown interest in reprising the role, though, or at least revisiting the property—he once commissioned Nick Cave to write a sequel that would have seen Maximus “traversing through the afterlife.” There’s no word on whether Scott has seen that script or is interested in using it at all, but we have to admit our interest is now piqued.