{"id":2213174,"date":"2025-12-26T20:14:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T20:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2213174"},"modified":"2025-12-26T20:14:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T20:14:21","slug":"exclusive-how-spartacus-boss-overcame-tragic-death-and-kept-the-show-very-graphic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/exclusive-how-spartacus-boss-overcame-tragic-death-and-kept-the-show-very-graphic\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | How &#8216;Spartacus&#8217; boss overcame tragic death \u2014 and kept the show &#8216;very graphic&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>It\u2019s his Roman Empire.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The sex and blood soaked gladiator series <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2012\/01\/22\/spartacus-lives-again\/\">\u201cSpartacus\u201d <\/a>is an unlikely success story, as it\u2019s continuing fifteen years after nearly getting derailed by the tragic death of its original star, Andy Whitfield. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor about a decade, I would be approached by Lionsgate or Starz every so often to say, \u2018hey, do you want to do more \u2018Spartacus?\u2019 And the original show was very difficult and very gut wrenching when we lost Andy. So, I just wasn\u2019t emotionally or creatively prepared to go back,\u201d creator Steven S. DeKnight exclusively told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption> Andy Whitfield in \u201cSpartacus: Blood and Sand.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9Starz! Movie Channel\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Nick E. Tarabay in \u201cSpartacus: House of Ashur.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9Starz! Movie Channel\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Helmed by DeKnight, the historical gladiator drama first premiered with \u201cSpartacus: Blood and Sand\u201d on Starz in 2010. Tragedy struck when Whitfield <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2012\/01\/25\/lion-down-on-the-job\/\">passed away in 2011 at 39<\/a>, of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Losing a star is a tragedy on a human level, and on a logistical level, it can also sink a show \u2014 see NBC\u2019s 1974 sitcom \u201cChico and the Man\u201d swiftly declining after star Freddie Prinze died by suicide at 22 in 1977. But fifteen years later, \u201cSpartacus\u201d is back with \u201cSpartacus: House of Ashur\u201d (new episodes out Fridays at 9 p.m. on Starz and streaming on the app).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When the production first got the news of Whitfield\u2019s cancer, \u201cwe were working on Season 2. We stopped and had to regroup. It was a blow to all of us. Andy was such a vibrant man. There was a question of, \u2018do we shut the show down?\u2019\u201d DeKnight recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During that period, DeKnight and his team released the 2011 prequel miniseries \u201cSpartacus: Gods of the Arena.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The former \u201cMarvel\u2019s Daredevil\u201d showrunner said they made that prequel \u201cabsolutely on the fly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhite-knuckle, seat of your pants,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe were just trying to keep the show alive,\u00a0while Andy went through his treatments.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption> Liam McIntyre in \u201cSpartacus: War of the Damned.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9Starz! Movie Channel\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Dustin Clare in \u201cSpartacus: Gods of the Arena.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9Starz! Movie Channel\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After they lost Whitfield, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2011\/11\/08\/fresh-blood-2\/\">Liam McIntyre took over the role <\/a>for two more seasons, 2012\u2019s \u201cSpartacus: Vengeance\u201d and 2013\u2019s \u201cSpartacus: War of the Damned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe plan for the original series was to probably go six or or seven years. But once Andy passed away, we all felt like we wanted to honor him and finish telling this story, but not draw it out, because we were all emotionally just gutted,\u201d DeKnight told The Post.<\/p>\n<p>Years later, they were ready to return. The gladiator drama \u201cSpartacus: House of Ashur\u201d stars Nick E. Tarabay, reprising the role he played throughout the series. Ashur was an antagonist, now he\u2019s in the spotlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took me about a decade to recover and get the passion for the show flowing again,\u201d said DeKnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Steven S. De Knight.  <span class=\"credit\">Brett Erickson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Tenika Davis and Jordi Webber in \u201cSpartacus: House of Ashur.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9Starz! Movie Channel\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Like the rest of the \u201cSpartacus\u201d franchise, \u201cHouse of Ashur\u201d is filled with steamy scenes, heads rolling, and blood spurting.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>DeKnight explained that when they were first planning the \u201cSpartacus\u201d world and wondering who the show\u2019s audience was, \u201cwe ultimately decided we don\u2019t care. Let\u2019s just make a show that we want to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The former \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer\u201d writer continued, \u201cOnce you try to appeal to everybody, sometimes it works. But a lot of times, you just get something that\u2019s watered down and has no perspective.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Jordi Webber, Joe Davidson and Dan Hamill in \u201cSpartacus: House of Ashur.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9Starz! Movie Channel\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Nick E. Tarabay in \u201cSpartacus: House of Ashur.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9Starz! Movie Channel\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The amount of sex scenes and blood and guts in \u201cHouse of Ashur\u201d is part of what the story \u201crequires,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The drama is set <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/18\/science\/extraordinary-military-treasure-tied-to-roman-battle-found\/\">in ancient Rome<\/a>, and \u201cit\u2019s a very violent world,\u201d he noted. \u201cLife was cheap and they had very different feelings towards violence. It was baked into their culture\u2026.we don\u2019t want to shy away from that. So, it\u2019s very graphic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like generally, TV and movies are becoming more and more cautious, for fear of a backlash,\u201d DeKnight said. \u201cThe great thing about working with Lionsgate and Starz, at no point did they ever tell us to tone anything down. They understand that this is a show for adults.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s his Roman Empire.\u00a0 The sex and blood soaked gladiator series \u201cSpartacus\u201d is an unlikely success story, as it\u2019s continuing fifteen years after nearly getting derailed by the tragic death of its original star, Andy Whitfield. \u201cFor about a decade, I would be approached by Lionsgate or Starz every so often to say, \u2018hey, do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2213175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[25538,22062,21741,404149,335448,21913],"class_list":["post-2213174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-actors","tag-celebrity-deaths","tag-entertainment","tag-period-dramas","tag-starz","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Exclusive-How-Spartacus-boss-overcame-tragic-death-\u2014-and.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2213174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2213176,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213174\/revisions\/2213176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2213175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2213174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2213174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2213174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}