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| “ | YOUR NAME WILL BE FORGOTTEN! | „ |
| ~ Geta to Acacius. |
| “ | The gods... have... spoken! | „ |
| ~ Geta after executing Acacius. |
Plubius Septimius Geta, also known as Emperor Geta, is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Emperor Caracalla) of the 2024 epic historical drama film Gladiator II, the sequel of the 2000 film Gladiator.
He is a sadistic Roman emperor who ascends to the throne of the Roman Empire sixteen years after the brief one of Commodus. Upon coming across with Commodus' nephew Lucius Verus, Geta and his brother Caracalla use him to gain their people’s approval but soon get concerned over a conspiracy to their joint rule, unaware they are being manipulated by the the real threat.
He was portrayed by Joseph Quinn in his first villainous role.
History[]
Past[]
Geta and Caracalla were born sometime prior to the events of the original Gladiator film. Allegedly, when they were in their mother’s womb, Geta tried to cut off Caracalla’s umbilical cord so he would suffocate and be born dead, but failed. They grew up together well into adulthood, but Geta was privately feared by Caracalla.
Following Emperor Commodus’ death and his nephew Lucius Verus’ disappearance, Geta and Caracalla rose up to become the Roman Emperors, exploiting Lucius’ mother Lucilla to do so, but Rome’s people feared them rather than liking them, plus Lucilla and politicians sympathetic to her, like Senator Gracchus, conspired to overthrow them.
Gladiator II[]
Sixteen years after Maximus Decimus Meridius’ last stand, Geta and Caracalla dispatch General Justus Acasius, Lucilla’s lover, to Numidia in order to fully conquer Africa Nova, leading to an attack that claims the lives of several including Lucius’ wife Arishat and captures the survivors like Lucius (now known as “Hanno”) to sell them as slaves back in Rome. Once the Roman Army returns triumphantly, Geta and Caracalla receive Acasius as a hero and announce that they will celebrate gladiatorial games in the Colisseum in his honor. Later on, Geta and Caracalla tell Acasius that, no matter his feelings and with Geta lightly pressing a sword on his neck, he must keep leading their armies to conquer more territories like Persia and India, then allowing him to leave to meet with Lucilla at their house.
Sometime afterwards, after Lucius gets sold to Macrinus for killing savage monkeys and showing his potential as a gladiator, Geta and Caracalla come to see Lucius accompanied by their entourage. There, Lucius manages to kill a rival gladiator, which impresses both brothers, convinced that Lucius will entertain the audience in the gladiatorial games after he recites a poem of Virgil that they don’t get to understand. Later on, Geta and Caracalla attend Lucius’ debut in the Colisseum’s arena, where he fights a gladiator mounting a rhinoceros. While he initially loses, Geta and Caracalla recite his poem and ask Lucilla if they should give him mercy. Realizing “Hanno” is her son, Lucilla quickly agrees, but Lucius refuses to accept mercy and defeats the gladiator, after which Geta gives him the order to behead the loser, which Lucius does.
Some days afterwards, the Colisseum hosts a naval battle, where Lucius comes close to shoot an arrow to Acasius to avenge his wife, but fails and nearly hits Geta and Caracalla, prompting them to leave their podium and demand the culprit to be found, with no success. Confirming that “Hanno” is her son, Lucilla confides in Acasius about her discovery after talking to Macrinus and Lucius, asking him to protect her son. Unfortunately, Lucilla’s maid betrays her employers by telling Macrinus and his associates about the truth of Lucilla’s plans, after which Macrinus alerts Geta and Caracalla in his plot to gain their trust.
Alarmed, Geta and Caracalla have Lucilla, Acasius and their collaborators captured after killing their guards, and Geta is forced to stop Caracalla when he tries to slash Acasius to death for mocking them, resulting in their prisoners be taken away. While intending to crucify Acasius for his betrayal, Macrinus insists that due to his popularity, he should instead be sent to the gladiatorial games. Both emperors agree and Acasius is forced to kill four of his former troopers before facing Lucius, which Geta and Caracalla force a shackled Lucilla to watch, ignoring her pleas. However, Acasius manages to make Lucius hear him, so Lucius declines to kill him in spite of Geta’s orders, resulting in Geta having his archers shoot arrows on Acasius until he dies.
Acasius’ death causes an uproar upon Rome’s population, challenging the brothers’ rule, much to their dismay. While discussing what to do with Macrinus, who has become close to them by this point, Geta lashes out at Caracalla by throwing him his drink on his face and his pet monkey Dundus, prompting Caracalla to leave the room. Taking the chance, Macrinus approaches Caracalla and manipulates him with his insecurities about Geta, such as how Geta may hate him if he tried to kill him while they were on the womb, making Caracalla think Geta is too dangerous to stay in power. Hours later, Geta comes across Caracalla, who lunges at him with a knife. Geta wrestles with his brother in self-defense, but in their struggling, Macrinus comes to help Caracalla decapitate Geta.
Geta’s death ends up leaving an immediate power vacuum that Caracalla tries to fill by stupidly appointing Dundus (to the shock and dismay of the court) and Macrinus as his consuls, leading the court to agree with Macrinus plan to depose Caracalla as he is clearly unfit to rule after Macrinus shows them Geta’s decapitated head. However, neither Caracalla nor Macrinus end up going far with their plans, as later that day, Lucius and his fellow gladiators break into the Colisseum as Caracalla and Macrinus hold an execution event for Lucilla and her fellow conspirators, which ends up with Macrinus disposing of Caracalla and then Macrinus falling to Lucius’ blade, allowing the two to join Geta in death.
Personality[]
Geta was a sadistic, egotistical ruler who ruled Rome and all of the Colosseum's entertainment. Just like Caracalla, he got amused easily by people fighting each other, as he enjoyed watching discord unfold among combatants in the Colosseum. His corrupt rule impacted the amount of bloodshed on the floors of the arena, showing his intense liking for war. Geta, however, was the somewhat saner of the two, recognizing the need for caution. Ultimately, however, it was his failure to recognize his own brother's failings and the corrupt nature of Macrinus that resulted in his undoing.
Trivia[]
- Despite being an epic historical drama, much like its predecessor, Gladiator II takes many historical liberties with the real Geta.
- In 200 AD, the real-life Roman Emperor was Septimius Severus, the father of Geta and Caracalla, not them, as he succeeded Commodus in reality after Commodus’ twelve years as emperor, instead of the mere months he reigned in the universe of the two films.
- Geta displays many flamboyant traits which seem more in line with those of Elagabalus, the Roman Emperor famous for his gender identity rumors who succeeded Macrinus (who was a Praetorian prefect instead of an acquaintance of the emperors) in real-life.
- Despite Caracalla’s claims that he and Geta shared a womb in the film, which implies they were fraternal twins born concurrently, Geta was born less than a year after Caracalla.
- While Geta was murdered by Caracalla as in the film, the act happened in front of their mother Julia Domna, who never appears nor is mentioned in the film. Likewise, Macrinus had nothing to do with this.
- Director Ridley Scott has called Geta as well as his brother Caracalla "definitely damaged goods from birth", deeming their leadership as the harbinger of the end of the centuries of Roman dominance over the ancient Earth while they ignore Rome's problems and a kind of reversal to Romulus and Remus, the legendary brothers who were raised by a wolf mother and founded Rome (precisely, they appear in a statue during the film and Gets ends up being murdered by Caracalla just like Remus was killed by Romulus).
- One of the visual inspirations for Geta’s look in the film was the British musician John Lydon. To play Geta, as he made sure to not “soil” Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as Commodus from the previous film, Quinn based himself on Gary Oldman’s Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg from The Fifth Elementh and the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian from Mission: Impossible III, while he along with Hechinger found inspiration from the titular characters of MTV’s Beavius and Butt-Head to portray a more humous and chaotic dynamic between the brothers.
- Ironically, Joseph Quinn and Pedro Pascal are set to work together once again but playing the heroic Fantastic Four members the Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
- Gladiator II came out on the same year as A Quiet Place: Day One where Joseph Quinn played the deuteragonist. Ironically, both films were made by Paramount Pictures.
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