House of Ashur’ first-look photos reveal main players (exclusive)

Actor Nick Tarabay delivers a line in the original Spartacus series on Starz that stuck with creator Steven S. DeKnight for more than a decade. Tarabay’s character, Ashur, an ambitious, unpredictable ex-gladiator yearning to ascend the societal ranks of ancient Rome, foretells “the noble rise of the House of Ashur.”

“And then, of course, we brutally murder him in classic Spartacus fashion,” DeKnight tells Entertainment Weekly.

In the years since the show went off the air in 2013, Starz routinely contacted the showrunner to see if there was more Spartacus to be had. “The reason I kept saying no year after year was the show was incredibly difficult to do,” he says. “And then, of course, we lost our star to cancer, Andy Whitfield, which really took the wind out of everybody’s sails.”

Whitfield, who originated the role of the titular gladiator in the first season of Spartacus, died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma in September 2011 at the age of 39. The part was later recast with Liam McIntyre leading the charge for two more seasons — separate from prequel Gods of the Arena miniseries. “I think I needed a decade to recuperate from the original experience, which was wonderful, but just grueling and emotionally gut wrenching,” DeKnight continues.

The umteenth call from Starz finally caught the TV creator at the right time. He felt “a renewed vigor,” as he describes, and began to think about what the next incarnation could look like in earnest. There were the obvious ideas, like “Caesar, Crassus, Pompey is the triumvirate” and “Antony and Cleopatra,” DeKnight recalls. “A lot of issues with those shows. One was budget. Those were all very expensive, but also we’ve seen that [story] and we know where that goes. People have done it very, very well in the past.”

He credits his wife, actress Jaimie Slater, for getting his more “kooky” approach off the ground: What if Tarabay’s Ashur wasn’t beheaded on Mount Vesuvius during the events of Spartacus: Vengeance? What if his premonition actually came to pass and he took over the “Ludus” gladiator school after Batiatus (John Hannah) as a reward for helping the Romans kill Spartacus and snuff out the slave rebellion?

This reworking of the timeline yielded Spartacus: House of Ashur, a 10-episode successor series that, in DeKnight’s mind (though the show never definitively states), takes place roughly six months after the events of the original’s third season, Spartacus: War of the Damned, and focuses on all the palace intrigue elements that, for DeKnight, were “the juiciest stuff” from the original.

Slater now plays a role in House of Ashur, that of Caesar’s wife, Cornelia. “The project would’ve died if she had said, ‘You’re an idiot, don’t do that,'” DeKnight says.

DeKnight, who returns as showrunner and executive producer, confirms the new alternate history timeline doesn’t impact the events of the original drama too much. “The only difference is Ashur didn’t die,” he comments. “Everybody else who died, I hate to tell the fans, they’re still dead.” Yes, that includes Spartacus himself. “I don’t want anybody to think that we’re digging up Liam McIntyre, as much as I would love to,” DeKnight makes clear. “But the war is over. The rebellion has been crushed.”

The real ripple effects come after. Spartacus’ rebellion “cast a huge shadow over everything,” DeKnight adds, noting how viewers will see visual references “quite often.” And now Ashur himself finds himself in uneasy territory.

“On the one hand, he’s a hero of the Republic for helping quell the rebellion, but on the other hand, he’s an ex-slave, which they don’t care for,” the showrunner elaborates. “He’s an ex-gladiator, which they care less for. And he turned on his brothers. Nobody trusts him because he, obviously, can’t be trusted. So he’s in this odd position where he has everything he ever dreamed of and is discovering it’s really difficult to hang onto it.”

Graham McTavish (Outlander) takes a leading role alongside Tarabay as Korris, Ashur’s Doctore, the lead trainer of the gladiators in the Ludus. Unlike past Doctores, Korris is an ex-gladiator who won his freedom in the arena. “Graham just brings everything to the role,” DeKnight remarks. “He brings strength; he brings, when it’s necessary, an incredible amount of dry, rye humor and real, deep emotion.”

DeKnight wrote the role specifically for McTavish, but the actor became an 11th-hour addition to the cast because of complications with his schedule on House of the Dragon and The Witcher. “It was a nail biter,” DeKnight admits, noting the tight deadline to get someone into costume fittings in New Zealand. “I got an email from Graham saying, ‘It looks like it’s not going to work out. I’m so sorry. I would’ve loved to have done it.'” He credits Karen Bailey, a Starz executive who also oversaw Outlander, for working her magic. “I think it was 24 hours later, he was signed on,” he says.

The other big addition to the new series is Tenika Davis, the Canadian actress and model from horror film Wrong Turn. Davis plays Achillia, a gladiatrix, a.k.a. the first female gladiator of the Spartacus universe, one who’s determined to surpass her male counterparts and win her freedom.

This is one of those ripple effects DeKnight talks about. “We wanted to bring in the female gladiators, but historically they didn’t appear in ancient Rome until about 100 years later,” he explains. “This time around, Ashur upsets history and introduces the female gladiator 100 years early.”

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Davis’ Achillia is the only gladiatrix at the Ludus at the start of House of Ashur, “and then it explodes from there,” DeKnight teases. “She’s just as driven, just as dangerous as the men. One of the things we wanted to do on this show is, of course, have all those great staples of the original — the sex, the intrigue, the violence, the complicated twists and turns — but also offering something new. One of those main pillars were the gladiatrices.”

Other players include Jamaica Vaughan as Hilara, an elevated house slave who’s in love with Ashur; Ivana Baquero as Messia, a house slave in love with Hilara; Jordi Webber as Tarchon, a brash gladiator; Claudia Black as Cossutia, a politician plotting Ashur’s downfall; India Shaw-Smith as Viridia, Cossutia’s daughter; and Leigh Gill as Satyrus, the leader of the Brothers Ferox, which are the gladiators from a rival Ludus.

DeKnight notes, “All those complicated inner interactions, loyalty shifting, love shifting…that’s really what makes this show so much fun and enjoyable to work on.”

A question, however, still lingers: How are audiences, especially longtime Spartacus fans, supposed to root for a character like Ashur, who betrayed his gladiatorial brethren? In short, they aren’t necessarily supposed to.

“He is Ashur. He’s the same guy, but in this position he’s in now, he has to maneuver in a different way,” DeKnight explains. “Is he a good guy now? No, he’s Ashur. He’s scheming, murderous Ashur, but the best way to get an audience behind a character like that is roll out the people who are worse. The Romans, the elites are much worse than he is. So really there’s a bit of Carlito’s Way in there. He’s trying to be a better person, but the society around him just won’t allow that. So he’s got to maneuver in scheme and murder to try to keep climbing that social ladder.”

Spartacus: House of Ashur premieres on Starz this fall.