The marketing for Gladiator II revealed a certain amount of information ahead of time that made some of the “twists” and turns of the plot redundant. To a certain extent, Gladiator II is a predictable movie, as it is heavily derivative of the original Gladiator‘s story. Lucius (Paul Mescal) becomes the stand-in for Russell Crowe’s Maximus, seeking revenge for the death of his family against a powerful figure in ancient Rome through gladiatorial combat. There is then a definite moment when Gladiator II stops being a remake and the plot goes into uncharted territory.

https://screenrant.com/gladiator-2-plot-twists-we-knew-about-list/