Gladiator II is hitting theaters, where Paul Mescal will play a vengeful gladiator in the ancient Colosseum. The latest action-packed trailer for Ridley Scott's sequel was released on Monday.

Mescal plays the adult Lucius Verus II, a nephew of Emperor Commodus from the original film, played by Joaquin Phoenix. After being forced into slavery, Lucius returns to Rome to fight – not as a ruler, but as a gladiator seeking vengeance and power, over two decades after the original film. gladiator Epos.

“You have something inside you: anger. Never let it go,” Macrinus, a wealthy power broker and arms dealer played by Denzel Washington, tells Lucius when he brings him into his gladiator stable to compete in the ring.

But Lucius also has ambitions for power and revenge as he works his way up the ranks of gladiator fighters. “Rome took everything from me. But I will have my revenge,” he tells a suspicious Macrinus at one point in the trailer, after insisting that he wants the head of Roman general Marcus Acacius, played by Pedro Pascal, who previously forced him into slavery.

“I am not fighting for power. I am fighting to rid Rome of men like them,” Lucius finally declares, as Macrinus, Marcus Acacius and others who rule Rome with an iron fist watch from a huge backdrop of the Colosseum in Malta.

Gladiator II The film is set to be released by Paramount Pictures on Thanksgiving as a major release, while director Scott is reportedly working on ideas for a Gladiators 3 down the street.

The first trailer was viewed 215 million times across platforms worldwide in just a few days.

Gladiator II opens on November 22nd and comes over 20 years after Scotts gladiatorwhich won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe. Joseph Quinn and Connie Nielsen also star in the new film.