Denzel Washington threw some shade at the producers of “Gladiator II” when he talked about a gay kiss he had in the film that was cut, allegedly over cold feet … but it seems there is more to the story, TMZ is told.

A production source tells us … the moment in question happened, but it was not in the script — and done during an improvised take of which there were many for the scene.

The kiss take — and other improvised takes — ended up on the cutting room floor as a story choice. No prejudice went into making the decision, we’re told.

Denzel made the comment during an interview with Gayety — an LGBTQ+-focused media company — and, they asked him about his character’s revelation that he’d been in same-sex couplings before.

DW says they didn’t just reference his character’s past in the flick … they actually showed him lip-to-lip with another man in a scene — a full-on smooch in the Ancient Rome film.

But, the scene ended up snipped out, and Denzel thought the team behind the movie “got chicken.” Worth noting … the embrace wasn’t very romantic — since Denzel kills his scene partner minutes after planting the kiss on him.

In the highly anticipated film, DW plays Macrinus — a former slave who plots to control Rome — in the sequel to Ridley Scott‘s iconic 2000 blockbuster that catapulted Russell Crowe into superstardom.