Spartacus. As a TV show, it was as camp as a leather-clad night out in the Castro District of San Francisco. Yet it was also wildly entertaining and gloriously violent. Somehow its absolute ridiculousness seemed to compliment the blood and the Olympic standard cussing. Against all the odds, and despite all the cock, it became something of a legendary television show.
Well, you can’t keep a good oiled-up, muscle-bound gladiator down, apparently.
Now the premium cable network that the series kinda built is bringing it back. Spartacus: House of Ashur is building its cast right now.
Nick Tarabay will reprise the role of the wiley Ashur. He will be joined by Graham McTavish (The Witcher), and Tenika Davis (Jupiter’s Legacy).
Other cast members include Jamaica Vaughan (Aussie soap Home and Away), Ivana Baquero (Pan’s Labyrinth), Jordi Webber (Choose Love), Claudia Black (The Nevers), and Leigh Gill (Joker).
The press release refers to this as a “history-bending, erotic, thrilling, roller-coaster experience”. Sounds like the reverend Reverend’s last missionary trip to Bangkok. This time around it starts from the position that Ashur did not die on Mount Vesuvius as per the ending of Spartacus: Vengeance.
He is now gifted the gladiator school once owned by Batiatus as his reward for assisting the Romans in killing Spartacus and ending the slave rebellion. McTavish plays Ashur’s gladiator trainer, with Davis as a female gladiator driven to surpass her male counterparts (uh-oh!).
Vaughan will play a young female house slave who is infatuated with Ashur, while Baquero is a fellow female house slave in love with her.
Creator, writer, and executive producer of the original Spartacus, Steven S. DeKnight, returns as showrunner. Ten episodes are now being shot in New Zealand.