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Highlander Will Allow Russell Crowe to Do What Ridley Scott Said ‘No Fuckin’ Way’ to on Gladiator

 04/11/2025 3 Views

Russell Crowe has revealed in a new interview that the upcoming Highlander remake, where he will portray the character played by Sean Connery in the 1986 original, will allow him to finally do what director Ridley Scott forbade him from doing in Gladiator.

In a recent interview with 60 Minutes Australia, Crowe laughingly recalled the ridiculously complicated background of Connery’s version of the character:

“The character’s name is Ramirez and Sean played the character brilliantly, obviously, as a Scotsman. But they explain the reason that Ramirez, the Spaniard, had a Scottish accent in the movie by saying that earlier he came from Egypt!”

Connery’s Scottish accent infamously remained intact whether he was playing a Russian sub commander in The Hunt for Red October, an Irish beat cop in The Untouchables, or a Moroccan insurrectionist in The Wind and the Lion.

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That’s when Crowe recalled how, early in rehearsals for Gladiator, he explained to Ridley Scott that, since his character Maximus was actually a Spaniard not a Roman, that he should speak with a Spanish accent or, as he put it, like “Antonio Banderas with slightly better elocution.”

Crowe chuckled when recalling Scott’s blunt response to his proposed character choice: “There’s no fuckin’ way that you’re doing that.” Crowe said they finally settled on Maximus speaking with an accent the actor dubs “Royal Shakespeare Company two pints after lunch.”

Crowe, who won the Oscar as Best Actor for Gladiator, revealed that he told this anecdote to Highlander reboot director Chad Stahelski who assured him, “‘If you bring me Spanish, I will take Spanish.’ So I’m gonna do Ramirez as a Spaniard. We shall see.”

Production on Highlander has been delayed until 2026 while lead actor Henry Cavill recovers from an injury he sustained during training for the film.

In addition to reuniting Man of Steel’s Crowe and Cavill, the Highlander cast also includes Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Marisa Abela, Djimon Hounsou, Max Zhang, and Scottish WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre.

Meanwhile, IGN’s Jesse Schedeen explains how the new Highlander’s casting of Jeremy Irons proves the reboot is already avoiding the franchise’s biggest mistake.