Christopher Nolan Names His Top Movie of 2024

Christopher Nolan has revealed that Gladiator II is his favorite movie of 2024. The director praised Ridley Scott’s sequel for combining the emotional depth of the original with the spectacle and scale expected from a modern blockbuster.

Gladiator II, directed by Scott and written by David Scarpa, follows Lucius, the son of Maximus and Lucilla, as he becomes a gladiator after Rome’s tyrannical rulers take over his home.

Paul Mescal stars as Lucius, joined by Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz, and Derek Jacobi, with Nielsen and Jacobi reprising their roles from the first film.

Writing to Variety, Nolan praised the way Scott used action and visuals to support the story. “In Ridley Scott’s first ‘Gladiator,’ Maximus asks us, ‘Are you not entertained?’ and we’re confronted with the truth of why we’d visit the Colosseum through a movie. Scott knows we’re not there for insights into Roman culture; we’re there to see our own dark desires at a comfortable remove,” Nolan said.

He added that in the sequel, Scott balances personal character moments with large-scale action, creating sequences that are both thrilling and thematically meaningful.

Nolan also admired the technical mastery in Scott’s direction. “Scott raises the game with the staging of his action — his incredible, hyper-observant, multi-camera mise-en-scène masterfully wrestles the action into clear and jaw-dropping sequence after sequence,” he explained.

The director noted that Scott’s use of spectacle, like the sharks in the Colosseum, reflects the audience’s appetite for drama while commenting on human nature.

Gladiator II faced a long development period. Early plans for a sequel began in 2001, but the project was delayed for years until it was officially announced in 2018. Paul Mescal was cast in the lead role in January 2023, with filming taking place between June 2023 and January 2024, though it was delayed for five months due to Hollywood labor disputes. The film premiered in Sydney on October 30, 2024, and was released in the UK on November 15 and the US on November 22.

The movie earned generally positive reviews and grossed $462.2 million worldwide. It received two Golden Globe nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Denzel Washington and Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design.

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