Saturday Night Live tonight imagined a world where, influenced by the success of Wicked and Moana 2, Gladiator II decides to add 50 minutes of musical content to become an even bigger hit.
That was the plot of a skit featuring host Paul Mescal “reprising” his Gladiator II role as Lucius, except this version croons about his feeling misunderstood as a killing machine when “they don’t know that far below I’m so much more.”
It all kicked off with Kenan Thompson singing how there’s “No Place Like Rome” with Mescal agreeing that “I’m gonna like it here.” From there, the skit went on to explain how an extra 50 minutes of songs were added to the sequel that still promised to be the “same violent epic.”
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Several SNL players joined in on the mini-musical, with Mikey Day as Rome’s emperor rapping a ditty that supposedly came courtesy of Lin-Manuel Miranda. “I don’t mean to be a hater, but I don’t like this gladiator,” he sang.
He and Mescal then flossed.
Reviews, the skit admitted, were mixed. One slide came up with a quote from the film’s director Ridley Scott saying, “I was not told about this.” Another read, “Movies are in such a weird place right now.”
The spot ends with Mescal leaving the Colosseum on a broom, belting out a version of the famous battle cry from Wicked‘s “Defying Gravity.”