Paul Mescal Manifests Barbenheimer 2.0 With ‘Gladiator II’ & ‘Wicked’ Same-Day Release & Coins It As ‘Glicked’

Paul Mescal hopes the same-day release of Gladiator II and Wicked will be the sequel to Barbenheimer.

Last year, Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the same day, becoming a box office phenomenon. The Greta Gerwig-directed film opened with $162M, and the Christopher Nolan film opened with $82.4M.

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Mescal is manifesting that audiences will go to the box office later this year to see both films on the weekend starting Friday, November 22.

“Wickdiator doesn’t really roll off the tongue does it? I think my preference would probably be Glicked if it has a similar effect to what it did for Barbie and Oppenheimer,” Mescal said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

Mescal continued, “It would be amazing ’cause I think the films couldn’t be more polar opposites and it worked in that context previously. So fingers crossed people come out and see both films on opening weekend.”

Gladiator II is the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 film Gladiator. The follow-up film is set years after the original and has Mescal taking over the role of Lucius that Spencer Treat Clark portrayed in the 2000 movie. Lucius is the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and the nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). The film also stars Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, and Denzel Washington.

Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu, stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively. The film is an adaptation of the Broadway musical, and it also stars Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle, and Peter Dinklage. Wicked has been broken into two parts, with the film’s second half set to premiere on December 25, 2025.

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