May Calamawy's scenes cut from 'Gladiator II' by Ridley Scott

In a recent interview, Ridley Scott admitted that his director's cut of "Gladiator II" was over four hours long. It might be released as some special edition of the film, which is already extended. Because of this, Scott had to remove quite a bit of footage. We've already written about, among other things, the scene of Denzel Washington's kiss with another man being cut. The actor stated that this moment is not in the film because viewers and creators weren't ready for it. It now turns out that not just one, but at least several scenes with actress May Calamawy were cut during editing. Various theories have emerged about this.

News about May joining the cast of the sequel to the 2000 hit had already circulated in the media in the spring of 2023. Interestingly, the portal ScreenRant reported that May might play the role of Empress Geta. We now know that this role wasn't hers, as the film features two Roman rulers—Geta and Caracalla—played by Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, respectively. Nevertheless, Calamawy was assigned some role in the new "Gladiator." Pedro Pascal recently shared many private photos from the set of the blockbuster, and in a few pictures, he can be seen alongside May.

There are several theories online as to why the actress isn't in the film's final version. One suggests that the studio wanted to avoid potential controversies related to casting an actress of Palestinian-Egyptian descent. Another theory is that Calamawy might have played a doctor in the Colosseum, caring for wounded gladiators and developing a romance with Hanno, the main character. There's also an opinion floating around that perhaps Ridley Scott didn't want to distract viewers too much from the main plot and replaced the female doctor character with healer Ravi, whom we see in the final version.

Calamawy confirmed that she was in "Gladiator II." At the London Comic Con, the actress reportedly admitted that acting alongside Denzel Washington was like a dream come true for her and that she fondly remembers the time on the set of the mega-hit.