For two of the biggest Roman epics of the past quarter century, Rome was not in Italy at all. It was a 17th century fort on a rocky headland in Kalkara, guarding the mouth of Malta's Grand Harbour, where Ridley Scott raised his Colosseum twice: first for Gladiator in 1999 and again more than two decades later for Gladiator II. Here is where both films shot in Malta, how the arena was made, and a straight answer to the question every fan asks: is the set still standing?
Fort Ricasoli: Ridley Scott's Rome
Fort Ricasoli was built by the Order of St John between 1670 and 1698. The military engineer Antonio Maurizio Valperga designed it at the invitation of Grand Master Nicolas Cotoner, and it takes its name from Fra Giovanni Francesco Ricasoli, a knight who donated 20,000 scudi towards the work. Today the fort belongs to the Government of Malta, most of it is leased to the Malta Film Commission, and it is not open to the public. You can read more about its long screen career in our guide to Kalkara and Fort Ricasoli on screen.
In the original Gladiator, released in May 2000, Russell Crowe played the general turned gladiator Maximus, with Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus, Connie Nielsen as Lucilla and Richard Harris as Marcus Aurelius. The Rome scenes were shot in Malta, inside Fort Ricasoli, and the film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Crowe named Best Actor. Wikipedia's list of films shot in Malta also names Couvre Porte in Birgu as a location for the first film.
For Gladiator II, which reached UK cinemas on 15 November 2024, Scott returned to the same fort. Paul Mescal leads the cast as Lucius, alongside Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, with Connie Nielsen returning as Lucilla.
How the Colosseum was built, twice
The first arena was a clever piece of partial building. The crew constructed roughly a third of the Colosseum, rising about 52 feet (16 metres), and the remaining two thirds and the upper tiers were added digitally. Afar reports that the section was made from plaster and plywood at a cost of around one million dollars.
The sequel went bigger. Production designer Arthur Max told The Credits, the Motion Picture Association's publication, that the first film had used about two thirds of the fort while the second took over the whole site. The Malta Colosseum was built at around 60 percent scale on the original footprint, so the light would fall as it did in 2000, and blue screens let the visual effects team extend it. Because the fort is a protected historic site, government permission was needed, archaeologists monitored the work, some clearing was done by hand, and the crew found cisterns under the arena that nobody had known about during the first shoot. Time Out described the finished amphitheatre as roughly the size of a football field and two storeys tall. This is the arena where Mescal fights a rhinoceros, and Euronews notes that the fort had also stood in for Toulon in Scott's Napoleon, covered in our Napoleon in Malta guide.
Other Malta locations in Gladiator II
Fort Ricasoli carried most of the Malta shoot, but it was not the only place used.
- Malta Film Studios, Kalkara. A few minutes from the fort, the studios' water tanks were used for closer shots of the film's mock naval battle. Arthur Max said most of the water work was done in this tank facility, with the rest of the water added digitally.
- Fort Manoel, Gżira. The 18th century star fort on Manoel Island in Marsamxett Harbour served as the gladiator training school, according to the location guide Movie Locations.
- Fort Delimara, near Marsaxlokk. The same source places the Colosseum's underground tunnels here. The fort is derelict, threatened by coastal erosion and closed to the public.
- Mdina and Mizieb. Country and Town House lists Palazzo Vilhena in Mdina and the Mizieb countryside among the Malta locations. Location manager Christian McWilliams has written that Mizieb was found late in the shoot when an earlier choice fell through. Mdina fans will know the old capital from our Game of Thrones in Malta guide.
Behind the scenes
The first film carries a sad footnote. Oliver Reed, who played the gladiator trainer Proximo, died after a suspected heart attack in a bar in Valletta on 2 May 1999, while the production was in Malta, as The Irish Times reported the next day. He had not finished all his scenes, so the script was changed, a body double completed his remaining work with Reed's face added digitally, and the film is dedicated to him.
The sequel had a stop and start production of its own. Filming began in Morocco in June 2023 before moving to Malta, was halted in July 2023 by the Hollywood strikes, resumed in Malta on 4 December 2023 and wrapped on 17 January 2024. McWilliams recalled the Roman street sets waiting in the Mediterranean sun during the pause, then filling again with cranes, wind machines and hundreds of extras. The production also received 46.7 million euros in Maltese film incentive rebates, reported as the largest such rebate ever issued for a film in the EU.
Is the Gladiator set still there?
This is the question we hear most, and the honest answer is more nuanced than a simple yes. Here is what the sources say, in date order.
- 21 January 2024. Days after the wrap, Malta Film Studios opened the Gladiator II set at Fort Ricasoli for a free open day from 8am to 5pm, with donations going to Puttinu Cares. Maltadaily reported the next day that more than 33,000 people came to see the Colosseum and Roman streets.
- Early 2025. Writing in February 2025, McWilliams said the ancient Rome set was shown to the public for one day and then taken down, and that clearing the locations took ten days. In an interview for a tourism studies essay dated the same month, Jean Pierre Borg of the Malta Film Commission said that sets are not built to last and generally have to be demolished, although the commission has tried to keep small pockets of sets for screen tourism.
- June 2025. Maltadaily reported on 16 June 2025 that parts of the Gladiator II set were on display at a Malta Film Commission evening at Fort Ricasoli, where the original film was also screened.
So, as of mid 2025, reports said that some elements of the Gladiator II set could still be seen at the fort during special events, while the full Roman city had been dismantled. We found no reliable report of the complete Colosseum still standing, and no announcement of a permanent Gladiator attraction. The Film Commission has spoken of possible film attractions or exhibitions at the fort, but only as proposals.
How to see it
Fort Ricasoli is a working film backlot and is not open to the public; the Film Commission has said access is granted case by case, mostly for educational and cultural purposes. Your best chance of getting inside is an official open day or film event, so keep an eye on Malta Film Commission announcements and check before you go.
You can still make a good day of it in Kalkara, where Fort Rinella next door is open to visitors, and pair it with a stroll around Mdina, where Palazzo Vilhena was among the sequel's locations. For every other title filmed around the islands, start with our map of films shot in Malta.
