I think it’ll be set around 20-30 years later and be centered around lucilius (Commodus nephew who was a child in the first).

I think they’ll do a relatively grounded movie, but there were already plans for a sequel after first one got made. The script for that one was made by nick cave and was definitely quite different. You can search for the plot (it had maximus go to purgatory, get resurrected and fight in all kind of future wars among other things)