The one thing you can say about Russell Crowe is that he's not shy in letting his feelings known. He's already publicly called out Gladiator II for lacking that intangible quality that made his Oscar-winning Gladiator such a success, but he's not letting sleeping dogs lie and he's now doubled down on his criticism of Ridley Scott's long-awaited sequel.

Ridley Scott has given us iconic movies and franchises that are entertaining the audience decades later. Alien, Hannibal, Prometheus, American Gangster, The Martian, the list can go on and on, and keep fans engaged in debates over which feature is superior. However, there’s one movie that is universally praised: Gladiator.

It takes a lot for a historical drama to win at the box office, especially when it doesn't even have that big a star (for the time) at the head of it. But thankfully, when Ridley Scott is your director, you need to have a bit more faith in the system and let it do its thing, because that's exactly what this utter masterpiece does.

Although recognizable brands still drive audiences to theaters, the promise of an epic space odyssey on the big screen is often enough to persuade audiences to take a chance on an original film not based on any pre-existing character or video game, as seen with one of 2026's smash hits, Project Hail Mary. Between Interstellarand the Dune movies, sci-fi and space movies are as fashionable as ever, and they routinely amount to box office titans amid the glut of IP.

Ridley Scott’s career is usually discussed through the giants first: Alien for sci-fi horror, Blade Runner for cyberpunk, Gladiator for the modern historical epic,The Martian for survival cinema, and now The Dog Stars, his upcoming return to science fiction after nearly a decade away from the genre. But somewhere between his mythic worlds and futuristic nightmares sits one of his most punishingly grounded films, which is now streaming on Peacock.

The membrane separating movies from TV has never been thinner, as one of Hollywood's biggest franchises suddenly has more prosects on the small screen than the cinema. FX has renewed Alien: Earth for a second season, which will begin filming later this year. By comparison, the studios behind the Alien franchise still haven't committed to their next movie project, with a sequel to Alien: Romulus in development, but nowhere near production as far as we know. Alien: Earth was a massive success for FX and Hulu, and it's clear the network wants to keep up the momentum. This could be good news for the franchise overall, but an increased investment in TV could mean fewer xenomorphs on the big screen in the years to come.

The last few years have been a roller-coaster ride for Ridley Scott, who has had a couple of big-time box office misfires with Napoleon (starring Joaquin Phoenix) and Gladiator II (starring Paul Mescal). The former was much more divisive than the latter — after being heavily criticized for historical inaccuracies, Napoleon grossed only $222 million at the box office against a $200 million budget, leaving it more than $100 million short of its break-even point. With a $250 million budget, Gladiator II also fell short of its $500 million break-even point by turning in only $460 million globally, and the lack of Russell Crowe in the film certainly made fans more hesitant to show up to theaters. Scott has suffered a few misfires in the historical epic department, but this summer, he’ll officially return to the genre he has helped revolutionize.