Actress who was cast for a ‘key role’ in Gladiator II mysteriously had all her scenes cut

Actress May Calamawy rose to fame after her appearance as both Layla El-Faouly and Scarlet Scarab in Moon Knight, and she was set to have a “prominent” role in Gladiator II after featuring heavily in the trailer and initial promotional material.

And I’m not just talking about her appearing as a background character, as pictures were released in June of May Calamawy literally kissing Paul Mescal on the set of Gladiator II, suggesting she could have been planned to be his love interest.

May Calamawy and Paul Mescal in ‘GLADIATOR 2’. pic.twitter.com/UYykQrt7Ar

— A Shot. (@ashotmagazine) July 9, 2024

According to Deadline, Gladiator II director Ridley Scott had gone through multiple auditions before he cast May Calamawy due to the “importance” of her character.

Deadline claimed: “While many of the leading roles were straight offers, Scott wanted to do a similar search he did for the Mescal part for the role that Calamawy ultimately landed.

“Given the importance of the character to the story, Scott wanted a thorough search, and following multiple auditions, Calamawy landed the part.”

Via Paramount

However, in the final cut of the film which appeared in cinemas, it appeared as though May’s role was reduced to being one with no dialogue and she appeared only very briefly as Denzel Washington’s companion.

It’s clear she was frequently on set, as Pedro Pascal recently shared a dump of behind the scenes pictures with many of them featuring May, showing they became close on set.

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A post shared by Pedro Pascal he/him (@pascalispunk)

According to someone on Twitter who met May during London Comic Con, she described her time on Gladiator II as “one of the best experiences of her life.” She added that it was amazing to work with Denzel Washington and explained: “It was the coolest, and she felt immediately comfortable with him.”

The studio has not yet clarified why she was removed from the film so heavily, although some have speculated it merely came down to time constraints.

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