Nick Tarabay‘s Ashur gets a second chance at life in Spartacus: House of Ashur. The latest spinoff in Steven S. DeKnight‘s epic, bloody gladiator world rewrites the script of the original Spartacus plot and imagines a world where the treacherous Ashur rose again and gained power from Rome. The other biggest change in this series is the introduction of the franchise’s first woman gladiator, called a gladiatrix. Achillia (Tenika Davis) makes her debut in the first of two episodes premiering on December 5 on Starz.
Set in Capua, this reimagined world thrusts viewers back into the brutality of Ancient Rome with the shocking resurrection of the once-defeated Ashur, who now returns as “Dominus,” the master of his own House. Fueled by vengeance and cunning ambition, Ashur rises from betrayal and bloodshed to seize power, gouging out a place for the House of Ashur in a new arena full of violence, desire, and twisted loyalty.
“Spartacus: House of Ashur is a thrilling, erotic, history-bending, roller-coaster experience that builds on everything that made the original series a colossal hit. What if Ashur had lived, and the Romans rewarded his treachery with the gladiator school where he once bled?” Starz describes. “Welcome to the House of Ashur. No longer a slave, Ashur has clawed his way to power, owning the same ludus that once owned him. But ruling a band of merciless gladiators is child’s play compared to surviving the savage world of Roman politics — a cutthroat game in which betrayal isn’t a sin, it’s currency. He flips tradition on its head by unleashing Achillia, a fierce and powerful gladiatrix eager to prove herself worthy in a man’s world. Together, they ignite a new kind of spectacle that shocks, disrupts, and offends the elite with every drop of blood.”
House of Ashur stars Tarabay, Davis, Outlander‘s Graham McTavish, Jordi Webber, Jamaica Vaughan, Ivana Baquero, Claudia Black, India Shaw-Smith, Jaime Slater, Jackson Gallagher, Leigh Gill, and more. Lucy Lawless also guest stars in the series premiere as Lucretia.
A sneak peek from the opening scenes reveals that Lucretia appears in the afterlife after Ashur’s death and offers him a second chance at life in a “new reality uncoupled from history,” a world where Ashur was the one who “hurled fatal spear that claimed the life of Spartacus, and in the act saved Crassus, who rewards you with patronage and all that once belonged to my noble husband.”
Lucretia’s husband was Quintus Lentulus Batiatus (John Hannah). While Tarabay and Lawless return to their roles, there aren’t many returning faces in the 10-episode House of Ashur Season 1. Scroll through the gallery below to meet the new faces of the ludus and Capua, with official character descriptions from Starz.
Spartacus: House of Ashur, Series Premiere, Friday, December 5, Starz