‘I wanted to be big and strong, but not like an underwear model,’ says Paul Mescal of his new look for Gladiator II

The Kildare actor plays Lucius Verus, the grown-up son of ­Lucilla. His character was a child in the original 2000 Oscar-winning film starring Russell Crowe as Maximus Decimus Meridius, a Roman general forced into slavery.

The 28-year-old told Vanity Fair: “I just wanted to be big and strong and look like somebody who can cause a bit of damage when the shit hits the fan.

“I think also, sometimes, one could, in striving for that perfect look, end up looking more like an underwear model than a warrior.

“Muscles start to grow, and that can be deemed aesthetic in certain capacities, but there’s something about feeling strong in your body that elicits just a different feeling.”

The All of Us Strangers star said he carried himself “differently” with more muscle and felt it had a positive impact on him psychologically that benefited the film.

The sequel focuses on Mescal’s character, the nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) and son of Maximus’s former lover Lucilla, who was played by Connie Nielsen.

Set after Maximus’s death, the story focuses on Lucius, who discovers his mother is alive when he is brought to Rome as a slave, despite believing her dead for years.

Joining the cast are Joseph Quinn as Emperor Geta and Fred Hechinger as Emperor Caracalla, portraying brothers who oversee a crumbling and morally compromised Rome.

Returning to the Gladiator franchise are Nielsen as Lucilla and Derek Jacobi as Senator Gracchus.

In April, critics raved about director Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel after footage from the highly anticipated film was screened behind closed doors at CinemaCon.

Sharing a video message before the teaser trailer, Scott told those at the annual event in Las Vegas: “It is possibly even more extraordinary than the first. It is well worth the wait.”

According to Variety, the CinemaCon trailer showed Mescal “face off against a charging rhino, a horde of vicious baboons and Pedro Pascal, among other threats to his chiselled physique”.

Film critics who were at the event went on X to share their excitement for its release on November 22.

Gizmodo reporter Germain ­Lussier wrote: “Well, the first #Gladiator 2 footage was instantly the best thing I’ve seen so far at #CinemaCon. Every bit as epic and bloody as you’re expecting. Just massive.”