Russell Crowe doesn’t hold back as he tears into Paul Mescal’s Gladiator 2

Russell Crowe has slammed Gladiator 2 in a brutal attack on the sequel to the classic Ridley Scott film.

Crowe is a household name celebrity, having starred in a number of beloved films, but he is undeniably still best known for his role in Gladiator as the Roman general Maximus.

For obvious reasons, Crowe did not return for the second film starring Paul Mescal, who played Maximus’ secret son Lucius.

Crowe spoke about the sequel in a recent interview with Triple J, stating that it was a ‘really unfortunate example of even the people in that engine room not actually understanding what made that first one special’.

He went on to say in the footage posted on Instagram: “It wasn’t the pomp. It wasn’t the circumstance. It wasn’t the action. It was the moral core.”

The actor claimed that keeping the moral core of the original film was a ‘daily fight on that set’.

He added: “It was a daily fight to keep that moral core of the character.

“The amount of times that they suggested sex scenes and stuff like that for Maximus — it’s like, you’re taking away his power.”

The reveal that Paul Mescal was playing Lucius, Maximus’ secret son, was the aspect of the film that Crowe took issue with most.

In the sequel, it is revealed that Lucius is the son of Lucilla, played by Connie Nielsen. She appeared in the first film as the second daughter of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

While it is implied that the pair had a past relationship in the movie, it is never 100 percent spelled out, something that the sequel takes the liberty to do.

Though the movie does not state that Maximus cheated on his wife, the sequel by extension implies that he was not completely faithful and truthful, something that angered Crowe.

He said: “What are you talking about? So, you’re saying, at the same time he had this relationship with his wife, he was f*cking this other girl? What are you talking about?

“It’s crazy. The women in Europe when that movie started coming out, I would be in restaurants and they’d come and talk to me and go ‘What’s going on?’”

The clip saw a number of fans on Instagram chiming in to agree, with one popular comment saying: “It was an awful sequel that in no way lived up to its predecessor.”

Another said: “Some things just don’t need a sequel.”

This is not the first time Crowe has hit out at the sequel, which saw Ridley Scott return to direct.

He said last year, prior to the release of the film, that it was ‘uncomfortable’ and that he had ‘no say’ what went in the movie.

Crowe said: “I'm slightly uncomfortable with the fact they're making another one - because, of course, [Maximus is] dead and I have no say in what gets done.

"But a couple of the things that I've heard I'm like, 'Oh, no, no, no, that's not in the moral journey of that particular character.'

"But I can't say anything, it's not my place, I'm six foot under. So we'll see what that is like.

“This is just me being purely honest: there's definitely a tinge of melancholy, a tinge of jealousy. I remember when I had tendons.”