Steven S. DeKnight’s ‘Spartacus’ Returns to Starz After 12-Year Hiatus with ‘House of Ashur’ Teaser Trailer

This is madness.

“Spartacus” is back — just without a Spartacus.

On Wednesday, January 15, Starz released the first-look teaser trailer for “Spartacus: House of Ashur,” a sequel to its original three-season (plus one miniseries, a prequel to Season 1) “Spartacus” series, which started in 2010 with “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” continued with “Spartacus: Vengeance,” and concluded in 2013 with “Spartacus: War of the Damned.” Between “Blood and Sand” and “Vengeance,” Starz made a six-episode miniseries “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.”

(Spartacus, by the way, is a real historical figure. He was a Thracian gladiator and one of the escaped slaves who led an uprising against the Roman Republic in the early first century BC. Andy Whitfield played Spartacus for the first season and provided a brief voiceover for its prequel. At the time, he was battling stage IV non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Whitfield died in 2011; Liam McIntyre took over the role in Seasons 2 and 3. Kirk Douglas famously played Spartacus in Stanley Kubrick’s 1960 film.)

“Spartacus: House of Ashur” is a sequel 12 years in the making. Nick Taraby will reprise his role as Ashur from the first two seasons of the series. Ashur is a Syrian former gladiator whose leg was crippled in the arena by Crixus. He later served Batiatus as a bookkeeper and henchman, and was killed by Naevia.

The thing is, it’s kind of hard to make a sequel starring a deceased character. “Spartacus: House of Ashur” has a much different take on how it all went down for Ashur.

This season “re-imagines possibilities and turns of fate from the original fan-favorite series,” per Starz. Specifically, it poses the question: What if Ashur hadn’t died on Mount Vesuvius at the end of “Spartacus: Vengeance”? And what if he had instead been gifted the gladiator school once owned by Batiatus in return for aiding the Romans in killing Spartacus, putting an end to the slave rebellion?

Big questions that it apparently took a dozen years to answer. And it’s OK to ask and answer them, because Ashur was not a real person.

In addition to Taraby, Graham McTavish (“Outlander”) will co-star as Korris, Ashur’s “Doctore” (meaning instructor and not doctor) and Tenika Davis plays Achillia, a fierce gladiatrix (that’s the word for a female gladiator).

Steven S. DeKnight (“Daredevil”) returns to the “Spartacus” world he co-created with Sam Raimi as showrunner and executive producer on “House of Ashur.” Rick Jacobson and Aaron Helbing also serve as executive producers. “Spartacus: House of Ashur” is produced by Lionsgate Television for Starz. 

“Spartacus: House of Ashur” will premiere in the fall. Watch the teaser trailer here: