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

Actor Nick Tarabay offers a line in the original Spartacus Starz series that stayed with creator Steven S. Deknight for more than a decade. The character of Tarabay, Ashur, an ambitious and unpredictable ex-unpredictable gladiator aspiring to set up the societal ranks of ancient Rome, predicts “the noble ride of the house of Ashur”.

“And then, of course, we brutally murdered it in a classic way of Spartacus,” explains Deknight Weekly entertainment.

In the years that followed the release of the show in 2013, Starz regularly contacted the showrunner to see if there was more Spartacus to have. “The reason why I kept saying that no year after year, the show was incredibly difficult to do,” he said. “And then, of course, we lost our star because of cancer, Andy Whitfield, who really took the wind of everyone’s sails.”

Whitfield, who created the role of the titular gladiator in the first season of Spartacusdied of non -Hodgkin lymphoma Arena gods Mini-series. “I think I needed a decade to recover original experience, which was wonderful, but just exhausting and emotionally heartbreaking,” continues Deknight.

The call of the Starz Umteent finally caught the creator of television at the right time. He felt “renewed vigor”, as he describes, and began to think about what the next incarnation could look seriously. There were obvious ideas, like “César, Crassus, Pompey is the Triumvirat” and “Antony and Cleopatra”, recalls Deknight. “Many problems with these emissions. One was the budget. These are all very expensive, but we have also seen this [story] And we know where it goes. People have done it very, very well in the past. “”

He attributes to his wife, actress Jaimie Slater, to have extinguished her more “kooking” approach: and if Ashur de Tarabay was not beheaded in Vesuvius during the events of Spartacus: revenge? And if his premonition really came to pass and he took over the school of gladiators “Ludus” after Batiatus (John Hannah) as a reward for having helped the Romans to kill Spartacus and to extinguish the rebellion of slaves?

This reshuffle of chronology gave Spartacus: Ashur houseA series of successors of 10 episodes which, in the mind of Deknight (although the show never expresses definitively), takes place about six months after the events of the third season of the original, Spartacus: the damned warAnd focuses on all the parts of intrigue of the palace which, for Deknight, were “the juicle” tricks “of the original.

Slater now plays a role in Ashur houseThat of César’s wife, Cornelia. “The project would have died if she had said:” You are an idiot, don’t do that “,” explains Deknight.

Deknight, who returns as a showrunner and executive producer, confirms that the new chronology of alternative history does not have too much impact on the events of the original drama. “The only difference is that Ashur is not dead,” he comments. “Everyone who died, I hate saying fans, they are always dead.” Yes, that includes Spartacus himself. “I do not want anyone who thinks that we will dig up Liam McIntyre, as much as I would like,” said Deknight clearly. “But the war is over. The rebellion was crushed.”

The real training effects come after. Spartacus’ rebellion “throws a huge shadow on everything”, adds Deknight, noting how viewers will see visual references “quite often”. And now Ashur himself finds himself in a difficult territory.

“On the one hand, he is a hero of the Republic for having helped to reduce the rebellion, but on the other hand, he is an ex-slave, from which they do not care,” says the showrunner. “He is an ex-Gladiator, whom they care less. And He turned his brothers. No one trusts him because he obviously cannot trust him. He is therefore in this strange position where he has everything he has ever dreamed of and discovers that it is really difficult to hang on to it. “”

Graham MCTAVISH (Outland) plays a leading role alongside Tarabay as Korris, the doctor of Ashur, the main coach of the gladiators in the Ludus. Unlike past doctors, Korris is an ex-gladiator who won his freedom in the arena. “Graham brings everything to this role,” notes Deknight. “It brings strength; it brings, when necessary, an incredible quantity of dry humor, rye and real and deep emotion.”

Deknight wrote the role specifically for MCTAVISH, but the actor has become an 11th hour addition to distribution due to complications with his calendar on Dragon House And The witch. “It was a nail biting,” admits Deknight, noting the deadline tight to bring someone to costume fittings in New Zealand. “I received a Graham email saying:” It seems that it will not work. I’m really sorry. Outlandfor having worked on his magic. “I think it was 24 hours later, it was signed,” he said.

The other big addition to the new series is Tenika Davis, the Canadian actress and model of the horror film Evil turn. Davis plays Achillia, a gladiatrix, alias the first gladiator woman of the Spartacus Universe, which is determined to go beyond its male counterparts and to gain freedom.

This is one of these training effects that Deknight speaks. “We wanted to bring the female gladiators, but historically, they only appear in ancient Rome 100 years later,” he explains. “This time, Ashur upsets history and presents the female gladiator 100 years earlier.”

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Achillia de Davis is the only Gladiatrix in Ludus at the start of Ashur house“And then he explodes from there,” teases Deknight. “It is just as motivated, just as dangerous as men. One of the things we wanted to do in this program is, of course, all these large staples of the original – sex, intrigue, violence, complicated twists – but also offering something new. One of these main pillars was the gladiatrics.”

The other players include Jamaica Vaughan in the role of Hilara, a raised house slave who is in love with Ashur; Ivana Baquero as Messia, a house slave in love with Hilara; Jordi Webber as a tarchon, an impetuous gladiator; Claudia Black as Cossutia, a politician tracing the fall of Ashur; India Shaw-Smith in the role of Viridia, the daughter of the Cossutie; And Leigh Gill as Satyrus, the chief of the Ferox brothers, who are the gladiators of a rival ludus.

Deknight notes: “All these complicated interior interactions, the change of loyalty, the change of love … This is really what makes this spectacle so fun and pleasant to work.”

A question, however, still persists: how are the public, especially for a long time Spartacus Fans, supposed to tell a character like Ashur, who betrayed his brothers as gladiators? In short, they are not necessarily supposed to do so.

“He is Ashur. He is the same guy, but in this position in which he is now, he must maneuver in a different way,” explains Deknight. “Is he a good guy now? No, he’s Ashur. He joins, Ashur Buried, but the best way to get an audience behind a character like this is to deploy people who are worse. The Romans, the elites are much worse than him. So, really there is a little bit of The Carlito Way there in there. He tries to be a better person, but society around him simply will not allow that. He must therefore maneuver in the scheme and murder to try to continue to climb this social scale. “”

Spartacus: Ashur house First on Starz this fall.