As a seasoned cinema enthusiast with a soft spot for musicals and a penchant for historical epics, I must say that Paul Mescal’s appearance on Saturday Night Live as Maximus Decimus Meridius in the Gladiator Twosical left me utterly enthralled! The blend of swordplay, song, and dance was nothing short of spectacular.
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View Urgent ForecastThis past Saturday, “Saturday Night Live” transformed “Gladiator II” into a musical, featuring Paul Mescal himself singing and dancing in the production. The actor was this week’s host on SNL and took part in a pre-recorded skit that mimicked a trailer for “Gladiator: The Musical.” Viewers were impressed by how successfully the concept was executed.
The storyteller for this fictitious trailer shared that “Gladiator II” was remade and reshot as a musical, aiming to replicate the financial triumph of “Wicked” and “Moana 2”. It launches with an energetic rendition of “No Place Like Rome”, followed by a journey into the Colosseum itself. Here, Mescal’s dance abilities harmoniously merged with the combat choreography. Impressively, Mescal demonstrated his versatility as a triple threat in this skit, even participating in the mandatory Broadway hip-hop number, holding his sword like a microphone.
The drawing recognized that “Gladiator II” was successful at the box office without any songs, raking in over $338 million. During its run, it even managed to break a few lesser-known records. Yet, it’s also worth noting that “Gladiator II” experienced a significant drop in its second weekend and placed third, behind “Moana 2” and “Wicked”. This could be due to the Thanksgiving holiday, as people seemed to prefer family-friendly films over an R-rated epic during that period.
In a smart move, Mescal took on this crossover role, leveraging his celebrity status beyond the Colosseum to entice fans who might not have been keen on Gladiator II otherwise. It’s worth mentioning that Mescal isn’t new to musicals; at 16, he made his stage debut as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera. This early experience paved the way for him to join an acting program in college and graduate in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in acting.
Of course, the musical parody is a staple of SNL, and the whole cast brought their A-game as usual. It’s notable that series alum Andy Samberg made a brief appearance in this sketch, singing and dancing with the ensemble in the background without taking center-stage himself. Samberg rejoined SNL this season to play Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff in the show’s election parodies, but he has also shown up more generally in sketches and digital shorts. It’s not exactly clear how much longer Samberg will be around, as he seems to say on his podcast each week that it was a last-minute decision to stay on.
Check out the trailer for SNL’s Gladiator II parody on YouTube, as well as this week’s other skits, or watch the entire episode right now on Peacock. The theater release of Gladiator II is currently available too.
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2024-12-08 19:40