Starz’ Spartacus is one of my favorite shows, and it’s definitely the best gladiator combat drama ever made. Even when star Andy Whitfield got sick and the show had to be retooled, it maintained a high level of quality. It’s been more than a decade since it went off the air, but now it’s coming back, sorta, with Spartacus: House of Ashur, a spinoff that’s a little bit like Marvel’s What If…? only not an anthology.
For Spartacus fans you might be wondering how the heck Ashur is alive considering his head got separated from his shoulders. House of Ashur is like an Elseworlds tale in which Ashur wasn’t killed, and his being alive reshapes history in many different ways. The cunning ex-slave was always skilled at moving people around like chess pieces, which is why he was such a fun character to love and hate. Of course, Nick Tarabay returns to the role.
Joining Tarabay in the cast are Graham McTavish, Tenika Davis, Ivana Baquero, Jamaica Vaughan, Jordi Webber, Claudia Black, India Shaw-Smith and Leigh Gill. Spartacus creator and showrunner Steven S. DeKnight returns in the same roles.
Spartacus: House of Ashur will run for 10 episodes. Starz has yet to give it a release date.
SYNOPSIS: “Spartacus: House of Ashur” will be a history-bending, erotic, thrilling, roller-coaster experience that builds on everything that made the original series a colossal hit. The series poses the question: what if Ashur hadn’t died on Mount Vesuvius at the end of “Spartacus: Vengeance?” And what if he had been gifted the gladiator school once owned by Batiatus in return for aiding the Romans in killing Spartacus and putting an end to the slave rebellion?
