What could make a stacked cast list including Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, and Guy Pearce sound even more attractive? The inclusion of the master of epics, of course. This is exactly what audiences will soon receive as the nearly-90-year-old Hollywood icon Ridley Scott’s next big project, The Dog Stars. However, audiences were once meant to have already indulged in the great man’s next sci-fi adventure, with the film officially moving from its original March 27, 2026, release date to August 28, 2026. Thankfully, this gives the movie a greater chance at big blockbuster success, as well as a more Academy-friendly release schedule.
With this next project being a return to sci-fi, Scott will be hoping to shake off a difficult recent run of underwhelming projects. From ***House of Gucci ***to the disappointing historical epic Napoleon, it’s fair to suggest that Scott is out of form. This is no better illustrated than in his long-awaited legacy sequel Gladiator II, as audiences were invited back into the Colosseum for another blockbuster battle, 24 years after the Best Picture-winning original. However, despite an early glowing response from screenings, Gladiator II was met with a mixed response upon full debut, leading many to quickly drop the film from their Oscars predictions.
This is despite the movie having an impressive central cast, albeit one that lacked original star Russell Crowe, who won Best Actor at the Oscars for his performance. This cast included the likes of Paul Mescal as Lucius, Pedro Pascal as General Marcus Acacius, Denzel Washington in a scene-stealing performance as Macrinus, **Connie Nielsen **as Lucilla, **Joseph Quinn *as Emperor Geta, and Fred Hechinger as Emperor Caracalla. At the time of writing, Gladiator II *has bounced back from its disappointing critical performance in 2024 by becoming one of the ten most-streamed movies on Netflix in the world.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Just like its performance with critics, Gladiator II also underwhelmed at the box office, despite pushes for the film to be paired with Wicked for a Barbenheimer-esque double-bill. Against a frankly eye-watering $250 million production budget, this swords-and-sandals legacy sequel could only return a $460 million haul, split between $172 million in domestic revenue and a further $288 million from overseas markets.
Gladiator II is a global streaming hit on Netflix. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for the latest streaming stories.
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David Scarpa, Peter Craig, David Franzoni