• Paul Mescal made his SNL hosting debut last night
  • The musical version of Gladiator was inspired by the Glicked phenomenon
  • The ending took more direct inspiration from Wicked
Paul Mescal
Paul Mescal. Credit: Nicky Nelson/Imago Credit: Nicky Nelson/Imago

Saturday Night Live transformed Gladiator into a musical last night (December 7) and Paul Mescal got involved for his debut appearance on the late night show.

The joke was that following the success of recent move musicals Wicked and Moana 2, Gladiator was turned into a musical after some “rushed reshoots”.

The mock trailer promised that the story would be recognisably the same, but “with an extra 50 minutes of songs”.

One of these was There’s No Place Like Rome, where  Kenan Thompson introduces Mescal to the city and he sings, “I think I’m gonna like it here.” Later, the show parodied the Hamilton soundtrack, even joking that one song was written by Lin Manuel Miranda himself.

At the end, Mescal flies away on a broom wearing a witch’s hat while singing the last riff of Wicked’s Defying Gravity.

What have fans said about the Gladiator spoof musical?

Fans quickly took to the internet to share their thoughts on the SNL sketch.

Many were pleasantly surprised by Mescal’s singing abilities. “Cast Paul Mescal in a musical now,” one fan wrote on X/Twitter.

“not paul mescal doing the defying gravity riff,” wrote another.

A third said: “That Gladiator 2 musical skit with Paul Mescal singing and dancing was perfect.”

Others appreciated the different side of himself that Mescal showed compared to his usual, often rather serious, roles.

How successful has Gladiator II been?

Despite earning mixed reviews from critics, Gladiator II has become director Sir Ridley Scott’s best overseas debut, after raking in a whopping $87 million from 63 markets, with a budget of $250 million-plus. 

Work has tentatively begun on the third Gladiator film, with Scott confirming he has already started plotting out the story  using his famous Ridleygrams to storyboard the action. 

In an interview with The Times on November 17, the mastermind behind movies such as Blade Runner revealed that he has “already written 12 pages”.

In the US, Gladiator II was released the same weekend as Wicked Part I, offering a spiritual sequel to last summer’s Barbenheimer phenomenon dubbed Glicked. Wicked, however, has outperformed Gladiator II at the box office so far.

Mescal affirmed recently that there is no rivalry between the stars of the two films.

In an interview with Attitude, he said: “I met Cynthia [Erivo] and Ariana [Grande, stars of Wicked] at the Academy Gala very briefly, and I’ve seen the film. I think they’re both extraordinary.

“And I’m a musical theatre guy, I’m a big advocate for that film.”

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Emma Wilkes
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