[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Spartacus: House of Ashur Season 1 finale, “Hail Caesar.”]
A handful of Spartacus characters returned in the Spartacus: House of Ashur spinoff on Starz, namely the titular character played by Nick E. Tarabay. Julius Caesar returned as well, played by Jackson Gallagher instead of Todd Lasance due to scheduling conflicts. One famous Spartacus face that was mentioned but unseen throughout House of Ashur‘s first season: Marcus Licinius Crassus, Simon Merrells‘s character. Should the spinoff be renewed for Season 2, will Crassus make his debut? We asked creator Steven S. DeKnight about this.
Spartacus: House of Ashur is a thrilling, erotic, history-bending, roller-coaster experience that builds on everything that made the original series a colossal hit. What if Ashur had lived, and the Romans rewarded his treachery with the gladiator school where he once bled? Welcome to the House of Ashur. No longer a slave, Ashur has clawed his way to power, owning the same ludus that once owned him. But ruling a band of merciless gladiators is child’s play compared to surviving the savage world of Roman politics — a cutthroat game in which betrayal isn’t a sin, it’s currency. He flips tradition on its head by unleashing Achillia (Tenika Davis), a fierce and powerful gladiatrix eager to prove herself worthy in a man’s world. Together, they ignite a new kind of spectacle that shocks, disrupts, and offends the elite with every drop of blood.
In this alternate universe, Crassus, the powerful Roman politician and general, rewarded Ashur with control of the Batiatus ludus. The series begins after Ashur was sent back from the dead by Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) and was already living with his reward, so Crassus wasn’t seen. He was frequently mentioned throughout the 10 episodes, and some fans were hoping to see him in the finale.
DeKnight noted that Crassus also didn’t appear for several seasons in Spartacus despite being frequently mentioned. The executive producer has already written Spartacus: House of Ashur Season 2, but is still awaiting an official renewal. What are the odds that Crassus could appear in a second season?
“I can say nothing except I love Simon,” DeKnight told us. “If you go back to the original series, Crassus is mentioned for like three seasons before you see him.”
Todd Lasance as Julius Caesar and Simon Merrells as Crassus in Spartacus (Everett Collection)
DeKnight also pitched the series as a five to six-year commitment to star Tarabay. The thrilling finale fight between Ashur and Caesar, in which Ashur kills the famous figure of Rome in the season’s final seconds, was also part of his pitch for the spinoff.
“When I called Nick up about three years ago now to say, ‘Hey Nick, what are you doing for the next five or six years? You want to do House of Ashur?’ I pitched him, ‘And Season 1 ends with you murdering Caesar, and the last line is, Hail Caesar.’ That really hooked him. We’ve been planning it for a long time, and it’s so great to finally have the audience get to see what we cooked up.”
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