Ashur may have met a brutal end in 'Spartacus,' but Steven S. DeKnight isn’t finished with him yet. In 'House of Ashur,' the creator resurrects the character to explore a darker, twistier alternate timeline—one that shifts the fate of the entire arena.
To dive more into the series, DeKnight sat down with Metro to help answer the question: What if Ashur had lived?
Audiences were first introduced to the world of ‘Spartacus' back in 2010. For you, what's the most exciting part about getting to dive back into it?
Absolutely everything is exciting for me diving back in— I love that world. One of the most exciting things is the “what-if” concept, which allows me to alter history. In the original show, we stuck very closely to the historical facts that were known, [even though] obviously, there are a lot of embellishments and new characters that were not historical. But one of the things that I love about the 'what-if Ashur had lived' is how he changes history. One of the first things you see [in this show] is his introduction of the female gladiator, the Gladiatrix. We always wanted to do it on the original show, but it didn't happen until about 80 years after our show was set. This time around, because Ashur's changing history, we get to bring it in earlier and explore that aspect of the arena.
What was it about the character of Ashur that made you want to focus this new chapter on him?
First and foremost, I really wanted to work with Nick E. Tarabay again. I just loved what we created with Ashur on the original show. And also looking back at the original show, the seasons that I thought were the juiciest were ‘Blood and Sand’ and ‘Gods of the Arena’, which had this upstairs-downstairs vibe. Downstairs in the villa and the ludus Romans upstairs, the gladiators and the political intrigue of the city and the upper crust, the elites. I really wanted to bring back that vibe for this next incarnation and explore those dynamics.
What were those beginning conversations like with Nick about doing the show?
When I first pitched Nick the story, he loved it. I had mentioned to him before in the past, I wish we would've done 'House of Ashur,' because we mentioned it in the original series. Ashur says: “This is the rise of the house of Ashur”—and then he gets his head cut off. So I always thought it would be really a lot of fun and very juicy to explore Ashur further, and see if a man who's done horrible things in the past can be better. He wants to be better, but Roman society keeps forcing him back to his old ways.
I was just going to ask if Nick was thinking of doing the character a little differently.
Yeah, that's a tricky thing and that's the brilliance of Nick. He takes the original character so it feels like it's that character continuing on, but then you start to see these layers in his heart start to open up. You see his vulnerability and his fears and his desires, and it just expands from there. So it's definitely the Ashur that people love to hate from the original show, and you see that right out of the gate — he does something pretty awful. But then, you see these other layers, and you see why he is the way he is and how much he's yearning for acceptance and love.
Ashur is brought back from the dead for this show. What other new character dynamics are you excited for audiences to get to see unfold on screen?
I wanted the fact that Ashur was alive to be the one main difference. A lot of fans of the original show ask me, well, Ashur's alive—who else are we going to see that died in the original? And I have to tell them, no one, everyone else who died is dead. They're definitely dead and they need to stay dead because otherwise it gets very confusing. I wanted Ashur to carry that and for us to tip our hat at the original series. I want fans of the original show to settle back and watch the show and go, I'm home. This is the show I remember. But, then also add a bunch of new stuff to expand it so we're not just treading the same ground we did the first time around.
There are so many characters that I love on this show. Like Graham McTavish as Korris. I loved the idea of this gladiator who won his freedom, but he's still got to do the job of training gladiators because that's all he knows. And interestingly, historically, ex Doctores in particular were feared and nobody wanted anything to do with them because they thought they were extremely dangerous. That's a little bit of what happens with Korris, he’s a man of advanced years and this is basically the only job he could get, working for Ashur. But then you see this wonderful relationship between Ashur and Korris where they're not all huggy lovey dovey—they're constantly butting heads. But, it's kind of this bromance that happens. They start to come closer and closer together and realize that they need each other.
Claudia Black as Cossutia is just wonderful. And then you bring in Caesar (Jackson Gallagher) and Cornelia (Jamie Slater) to mix things up, the Brothers Ferox and Leigh Gill, who is just such a delight. It's the entire cast. Every single person brought something special to the role and really took what I put on the page with the writers and just breathed full life into it.
The fight scenes always stand out to fans with this show in particular. What goes into getting prepared for those kinds of action sequences?
First and foremost, we approach those fight scenes from a character standpoint. What are the stakes? Who wants what? Who's trying to get whatever they need? We do that so it's more than just a fight, there's something going on on a deeper level. It's the same way for the sex scenes: What does the character want? What do they need?
We map out the fight because we've got to give the scaffolding of what needs to happen, and then we hand it over to our amazing stunt coordinator, Al Poppleton and his team. Al did the original series, so he's well versed in the language of ‘Spartacus.’ They come back and take everything we put on the page and just make it more spectacular and more heart-pounding. It takes a village to make one of those big fights.
What do you hope ‘Spartacus’ fans get from ‘House of Ashur’, and then equally, new fans?
For the legacy fans, first and foremost, I want them to be entertained the way they were with the original. I want them to look at this and go, 'Oh, it is the same show—it’s just a new world.' It feels the same, it sounds the same, it looks the same, but with new characters and plots to draw them in. For new fans, I'd like them to watch the show, really enjoy it and go, you know what? I should check out the original and see how that jives with this new incarnation.
You can jump right into the show without ever having seen an episode of ‘Spartacus.’ The way we set it up, you get the lay of the land and then we're right in it. But if you've seen the original ‘Spartacus’, there's a bunch of little Easter eggs and references that'll make the experience even better.
'Spartacus: House of Ashur' debuts with a two-episode premiere on Friday, Dec. 5, on Starz.
