After getting his start in the movie world in 2014 with Men, Women & Children, and followed shortly thereafter by by Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, Timothée Chalamet really started turning heads in 2017 thanks to his appearances in flicks like Call Me by Your Name and Lady Bird. Cut to 2023, Chalamet is now one of Hollywood’s most famous younger actors, to the point that his agent has shared that Chalamet hasn’t had to audition for a role in “more than seven years.” This revelation came after some Gladiator 2 rumors concerning his client were rolling around.
In case you missed the news last week, it was announced that Paul Mescal has been cast to lead Gladiator 2 as Lucius, the son of Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla and nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus, who was previously played by Spencer Treat Clark. Following that news coming out, it was rumored that Timothée Chalamet was among the actors who auditioned for that role, which led to Chalamet’s agent, Brian Swardstrom, responding to a now-deleted tweet to debunk that claim. As Swardstrom put it on Twitter:
I know one of these actors was shooting a film in the middle east for the past several months - and he hasn’t auditioned for anything in more than 7 years.
So now only is Brian Swardstrom laying down that Timothée Chalamet hasn’t needed to concern himself with auditions since the mid-2010s, but even if that weren’t the case, the Little Women actor has been busy shooting a movie in the Middle East lately, so he wouldn’t have had time to audition for Gladiator 2 anyway. That movie, by the way, is Dune: Part Two, which sees Chalamet reprising Paul Atreides, with the actor’s first outing as the character being released to theater patrons and HBO Max subscribers in October 2021, but I digress.
The point being, it doesn’t sound like Timothée Chalamet was in any way connected Gladiator 2 prior to Paul Mescal coming aboard. Regarding the fact that Chalamet doesn’t need to audition for roles anymore, as reported by Buzzfeed, there were people online who speculated that members of Chalamet’s family also being part of the entertainment industry might have something to do with this, like his mother Nicole Flender being an actress, his uncle Rodman Flender being a director and Harold Flender, his maternal grandfather, having been a screenwriter. As a result, Chalamet now finds himself part of the nepo baby conversation, but we can talk more about that on another day.
Besides Dune: Part Two, which comes out on November 3, this year also sees Timothée Chalamet playing a younger Willy Wonka, with the Wonka prequel movie arriving on December 15. Post-2023, though, Chalamet’s schedule is wide open, though we’ll obviously let you know once his next movie is announced. Meanwhile, you can keep track of the other movies coming out this year with our 2023 release schedule. Gladiator 2 doesn’t have a release slot yet, but Ridley Scott is still attached to direct and produce, and David Scarpa wrote the script.
