Ridley Scott’s release could be out in two months Gladiator II and his 87th birthday, but he is already forging an idea for a third gladiator snap.

In an interview with The Hollywood ReporterWhen the filmmaker was asked about his next projects, he answered bluntly: “I would rather Gladiator III.” Scott continued, “There is already an idea,” and although he did not give too much away, he said he was inspired by The Godfather – Part II.

Scott made similar comments to the French film magazine premieresaid he had already “lit the fuse” and went a little further The Godfather connection. “The end of Gladiator II reminds of The Godfatherin which Michael Corleone gets a job he doesn’t want and asks himself, ‘Well, father, what do I do now?’ So the next (film) will be about a man who doesn’t want to be where he is.”

Gladiator II hits theaters on November 22nd (and Scott’s birthday, if you’ve been counting, is November 30th). The film is released 24 years after the first gladiator The film was a critical and box office success and won Best Picture and Best Actor (for Russell Crowe) at the 73rd Academy Awards.

The new film centers on Lucius (Paul Mescal), a character briefly seen in the original film as the son of Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla, daughter of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, ex-lover of Crowe’s Maximus, and sister of Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus (Nielsen will reprise her role in the new film). After the events of the first film, Lucilla sends Lucius to North Africa without explanation, leaving him alone and bitter, but also with the memory of Maximus’ final battle.

Lucius, now an adult, is forced into slavery, returns to Rome and becomes a gladiator after the new emperors invade his homeland. Along the way, he meets Macrinus, a power broker and arms dealer played by Denzel Washington, and inevitably finds himself on a collision course with Marcus Acacius, a Roman general played by Pedro Pascal.