Did Matt Lucas leave Bake Off for Gladiator 2?

The following contains minor setup spoilers for Gladiator II, which opens in theaters on November 22Gladiator II boasts an impressive cast, including Matt Lucas – who may have left The Great British Cake partly due to the opportunity to be in the film. Set sixteen years after the events of the first Gladiator, Gladiator II follows Lucius Verus as he is forcibly brought back to Rome as a gladiator and finds himself caught in the middle of a power play for the throne. Gladiator IIThe cast of characters includes figures that allude to the real-life history of Rome, as well as some important returning faces, like Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla. There are also many new faces, including Matt Lucas.

Lucas started on BBC programs such as The smell of Reeves and Mortimer and Shooting stars before getting fully into sketch comedy Little Britain. This led to a more high-profile career for the actor, with Lucas appearing in BridesmaidsTim Burton Alice in Wonderlandand Doctor Who before taking on the role of co-host on The Great British Cake. The actor left the popular amateur cooking show at the end of 2022, just before production began on the long-running Gladiator IIraising the possibility that the film was one of the main reasons he left the BBC program.

Matt Lucas’ character in Gladiator II explained

Matt Lucas plays the master of ceremonies in Gladiator II

Matt Lucas has a smaller but memorable role in Gladiator II as Master of Ceremonies at the Colosseum. Although he is understandably absent from the first act of Gladiator II when the action takes place primarily in the nation of Numidia, the Master of Ceremonies appears repeatedly when Lucius and the rest of the Gladiators are thrown into combat. Lucas’ character effectively replaces Cassius, who was the Master of Ceremonies in the first Gladiator.

Similar to Cassius, Luke’s Master of Ceremonies is a theatrical figure who can capture the attention of Roman citizens through his booming voice. He shows complete loyalty to his emperors, turning his praise for certain characters into insults depending on his recent interactions with the twin rulers. Lucas’s Master of Ceremonies doesn’t contribute much to the plot (and doesn’t get the secondary character beats that made Cassius so surprisingly three-dimensional in Gladiator), but her performance is still a memorable part of the film.

Why Matt Lucas left Bake Off

Matt Lucas actually left the Baking Show for Gladiator II?

Matt Lucas is best known for his comedic work on British televisionas well as a host in The Great British Cake. Lucas entered The Great British Cake in 2020 and co-presented the show for two years before leaving in 2022, with Alison Hammond replacing him as co-host. Lucas publicly declared that he left The Great British Cake because of his focus shifting to other film and television projects. Notably, Gladiator II began filming in May 2023. This would coincide with his departure from Great British Baking in December 2022.

This means It’s likely that Ridley Scott’s film was one of those projects that prevented Lucas from returning to To roast. At the time of writing, his only other role listed in IMDB It’s the animated film Fairytale Forestwhere he will appear alongside Jane Lynch, Whoopi Goldberg, Erika Halacher, Lilla Crawford and Mel Brooks. Although his role as Master of Ceremonies in Gladiator II probably wasn’t the only reason Matt Lucas left The Great British Cakeseems to be an excellent example of the type of project you alluded to in your departure.

Source: IMDB