Now that the long-gestating Gladiator sequel is moving towards production, director Ridley Scott's clearly wasting no time in gathering a top notch ensemble. With Paul Mescal and, more recently, Barry Keoghan attached to two of the main roles, Scott is adding Denzel Washington to the line-up.

This would, of course, mean a reunion for Scott and Washington after working on 2007's American Gangster, which starred the latter as crime boss Frank Lucas.

What role he'd be playing here isn't disclosed in Deadline's report on the casting, but Washington was apparently swayed by the "badass" role writer David Scarpa has crafted for him, and a meeting with Scott helped seal the deal.

Gladiator 2 will be set years after the events of the first film and finds Mescal playing a grown version of the character Lucius, as originally brought to life by Spencer Treat Clark. Keoghan is in line to be the primary antagonist,...