Paul Mescal plays the grown Lucius, and Connie Nielsen is back to play his mother, Lucilla. Lucious isn’t Roman royalty in Gladiator II, though. Instead, he’s the featured gladiator, quite likely as part of the ludus owned and run by Denzel Washington’s Macrinus. Pedro Pascal lends his acting talents to Marcus Acacius, a Roman general who served under Maximus before treachery sent him to the gladiatorial arenas of the Roman Empire.