Australian musician and writer Nick Cave wrote a screenplay for a proposed sequel that involved Maximus awakening into purgatory after his death and his subsequent resurrection. Both Crowe and Scott agreed that it wasn't the direction they wanted to go in.
According to screenwriter William Nicholson, Crowe's iconic "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius..." speech was a last minute re-write that Crowe initially didn't want to do. He supposedly called the dialogue "shit".