Denzel Washington reveals gay kiss was cut from Gladiator II

We could have had it all!

Gladiator II comes out November 22, and the sweat, sand, and spectacle are all a lot bigger this time around! Unfortunately, as star Denzel Washington has revealed, the movie could have had a same-sex kiss that was ultimately cut.

"I kissed the man in the film, but they took it out, they cut it, I think they got chicken," Washington revealed in an interview with Gayety. "Yeah, I kissed the guy full on the lips and I guess they weren't ready for that yet. I killed him about five minutes later. It's Gladiator. The Kiss of Death."

We had previously found out about another same-sex kiss cut from the film – one between Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal's characters.

"There was a moment when we were rehearsing my fight scene with Pedro, and I had an idea towards the end of the scene to kiss Pedro on the forehead," Mescal revealed. "I did it in one of the takes, and then we're getting the radio messages back to Ridley (Scott, the film's director) and I was like, 'Ridley: Kiss on the forehead, did you like it? Yay or nay?' There was radio silence for a second. HIs radio crackles back and goes 'I'm afraid I did.'"

Unfortunately, Scott didn't like it enough to keep it in the final cut of the film.

Queerness isn't entirely absent from the film though, one Roman politician is revealed to be gay, and when he finds out, Washington's character says that some days, he prefers men as well.

Gladiator II is in theaters November 22.