It's time for "Gladiator II" and our collective return to glorious if savage ancient Rome. (And if you're really into it, "Gladiator III" could be on the way.) Get ready for gory scenes of gladiators fighting crazed monkeys,

As Gladiator II enters the theatrical arena against Wicked, it’s relying on a marketing tactic the 2000 film didn’t: thirst. The Russell Crowe-led original won five Oscars, including Best Picture. It’s not that the sequel isn’t good — it’s been getting decent reviews — but 25 years have passed and the way movies are promoted has changed.

L ong before “thinking about the Roman empire” became shorthand for having a hyper-fixation, Ridley Scott turned the actual Roman empire into a mainstream obsession. In 2000,

Now, director Ridley Scott is returning to ancient Rome with the long-awaited sequel, "Gladiator II" which hits theaters Friday. The film stars Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, and Pedro Pascal in a story set in the same brutal Roman Empire —one that didn't leave Scott's mind in the years since its first release.

Without giving away too much of the plot of Ridley Scott’s new epic Gladiator II, the sequel to the beloved first installment that made Russell Crowe an icon back in the year 2000, one long action sequence does indeed revolve around flooding the Colosseum.