Gladiator 2’s trailer divides fans for one major reason

The first trailer for Gladiator 2 is suffering from a massive dislike ratio, and its choice of music may be the reason for this.

At long last, fans finally got their first look at Gladiator 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the original 2000s film starring Russell Crowe.

When Gladiator 2‘s first trailer was released on July 9, fans were excited to see Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal in action fighting against the movie’s new villain. However, things quickly took a turn for the worst, as the video is currently sitting at 143,000 likes to 305,000 dislikes.

While there’s no confirmation as to why the trailer was so heavily disliked, its inclusion of the Jay-Z and Kanye West’s song ‘No Church in the Wild’ may have played a big factor.

The song is from Jay-Z, and Ye’s quintuple platinum collaborative studio album Watch the Throne. While it was used in the trailer to hype up the gladiator fights on the horizon, some fans were unhappy about it being in the footage montages.

“When the rap starts playing, I thought Vin Diesel was going to show up with his V8 in the arena,” one viewer wrote in the YouTube comment section.

Another fan said the trailer should’ve used music from the original movie’s composer, “Making an emergency call to Hans Zimmer.”

Most vocal fans are complaining that rap music was not around when the movie takes place in 200 AD.

However, Gladiator 2 is not the first period piece to use music that is way outside of its time frame. Ridley Scott’s Napoleon used the song ‘War Pigs’ by Black Sabbath in its official trailer.

Because of this backlash, some Gladiator fans are calling out those who are hate bombing the trailer as being racist because a lot of the YouTube comments are trying to tie the song’s inclusion to the fact that Denzel Washington, a notable Black actor, is one of the more prominent names attached to the project.

Some fans came to the defense of Jay-Z’s song being used in the video as one fan posted on X/Twitter, “Using ‘No Church in the Wild’ here for the sole purpose of looping the ‘tears on the mausoleum floor/blood stains the Coliseum doors’ verse is such a good bit.”

A second defender of the rap said, “There’s never been a more perfect film to needle drop “No Church in the Wild.'”

For more, read why Gladiator 2 proves Pedro Pascal hasn’t learned from Game of Thrones’ most brutal death. Or, find the other best action movies and best horror movies to add to your watch list.