Gladiator director Ridley Scott says he had to persuade Joaquin Phoenix to stay on the first movie, after the Joker star threatened to quit.

Phoenix, 50, played the corrupt Roman emperor Commodus in the first film, and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

Scott told The New York Times: “[Joaquin] was in his prince’s outfit saying, ‘I can’t do it’ – I said, ‘What?’ And Russell [Crowe] said, ‘This is terribly unprofessional’.”

The 86-year-old filmmaker said he used his closeness to Phoenix to persuade him to stay on.

“I can act as a big brother or dad. But I’m quite a friend of Joaquin’s. Gladiator was a baptism of fire for both of us in the beginning,” he said.

Scott and Phoenix also worked together in 2023 on historical movie Napoleon, in which Phoenix starred as the capricious French general.

Gladiator II picks up 20 years after the original film, which picked up four Oscars.

It marks Paul Mescal‘s first big studio movie, playing Roman warrior Lucius Verus, who is also Maximus’s secret son, and a child character in the original movie.

Mescal has previously said Scott offered him the role after an informal meeting of around half-an-hour.

Russell Crowe: ‘A tinge of jealousy’

But the sequel does not feature Australian actor Russell Crowe, who won an Oscar for his starring original performance in 2000, but whose character died at the end of the first film.

Scott told The New York Times, while there had been discussions with Crowe about the possibility of bringing his character back from the dead, ultimately it did not work out.

Crowe told Sky News this summer: “I feel old. That’s how I feel about it… That period of my life, you know, was a huge change. Everything just went kind of crazy for a while.

“I do have extremely fond memories of [Gladiator]. And, to be completely honest, there’s a tinge of jealousy because I certainly wish I was back at being, you know, 35, 36, in a certain way, so I could have that kind of experience again.”

Sky News has contacted Phoenix and Crowe for comment.

Scott also revealed Barry Keoghan had originally been slated to appear in the sequel as a villain, but a clash with the filming of Saltburn ruled him out of the role.

Gladiator II also stars Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen and Sir Derek Jacobi. It is out in UK cinemas on Friday 15 November.