More than ten years after the end of Spartacus, Starz is set to return to the arena. During San Diego Comic-Con, the American network unveiled the trailer for Spartacus: House of Ashur, a spin-off series that, according to a press release, promises to be faithful to the brutal intensity and eroticism that made the original saga such a success. This seems to be confirmed by the first images released.
In Spartacus: House of Ashur, Steven S. DeKnight—creator of Spartacus—imagines a new reality: What if Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay) had survived and the Romans had offered him control of the Ludus where he shed his blood as a reward for his betrayal? Now the master of a gladiator school, Ashur must face an even more dangerous arena: Roman politics, where “betrayal isn’t a sin, it’s currency.”
To shake up tradition and assert himself in the struggle for power, Ashur enlists Achillia’s (Tenika Davis) help. She is a fearsome gladiator determined to make her mark in a man’s world. Together, they create a new kind of spectacle that “shocks, disturbs, and offends the elite with every drop of blood,” according to the official press release.
Alongside Nick E. Tarabay and Tenika Davis, the cast of Spartacus: House of Ashur includes Graham McTavish (Outlander), Jamaica Vaughan (800 Words), Ivana Baquero (The Shannara Chronicles), Jordi Webber (Summer Bay), Claudia Black (Stargate SG-1) and Jaime Slater (Horror Haiku).
While the exact broadcast date of Spartacus: House of Ashur is not yet known, Starz has revealed that fans of Spartacus will be able to discover this new series in the winter. Only a few more months remain before returning to Rome and the arena.
