Ridley Scott Says Russell Crowe Once Asked to Star in Gladiator II: ‘I Want to Come Back from the Dead’ (Exclusive)

Russell Crowe doesn’t return to the Colosseum in the long anticipated sequel to Gladiator — but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

As legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott tells PEOPLE, the New Zealand star, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 2001 for his performance in the first film, was eager to somehow factor into Gladiator II despite his character Maximus’s death at the end of the original.

“Russell and I had a go at it around 18 years ago,” Scott, 86, recalls. “I had Nick Cave writing the script and I kept saying [to Russell], ‘But you’re dead.’ And he said, ‘I know I’m dead. And I want to come back from the dead.'”

In Gladiator, Crowe’s Maximus, a former Roman general forced to fight for his life in the Colosseum, dies from wounds sustained after killing Roman Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). The new film centers on Lucius (Paul Mescal), the son of Maximus who is also enslaved into becoming a gladiator. (Lucius, as a child in the first film, was played by Spencer Treat Clark.)

Scott says he tried to devise a way to include Maximus in the sequel via a “portal to bring him back from the dead.” “The only way of doing it was to go to another battle and through a dying warrior, he comes back into the spirit of the warrior,” remembers Scott. “So that’s his portal.”

When presented with the concept, Scott says Crowe rebuffed it because it would require casting a different actor in the reincarnated role. “He said, ‘So that’s no f—ing good, is it?'” Scott recalls Crowe saying. “It didn’t really work.”

Crowe expressed feeling FOMO after not being included in the sequel, previously telling Collider he was “slightly jealous” because, looking back, “I was a much younger man, obviously, and it was a huge experience in my life.” Crowe added that Gladiator still “holds a special place in my heart.”

The actor also said on a podcast that it was “slightly uncomfortable” for him since his character is “dead, and I have no say in what gets done” in future storylines: “Can’t say anything. It’s not my place. I’m six foot under,” he said at the time.

Two original cast members do reprise their roles: Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacobi. New cast members range from Denzel Washington to Pedro Pascal and Joseph Quinn.

Mescal, 28, has been open about not feeling compelled to reach out to Crowe before leading the new Gladiator movie. “Ultimately, I have to stand behind this entirely by myself. … You can’t rely on anyone besides the script and the director and yourself,” he told Extra.

Director Scott then said, “I’ll add to that: Why would Roger Moore call up Sean Connery [for a James Bond movie]? … What’s he gonna do that for?”

For more on Gladiator II, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.