Entertainment

15 Years Later, This Brutal 3-Part Epic Is Still One of TV’s Best Historical Dramas

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The early 2000s were a gold mine for historical dramas, and Starz seemed to excel at creating them. Whether it’s the decades-spanning romance of Outlander or the bold look at the age of piracy with Black Sails, Starz managed to stand shoulder to shoulder with other major cable channels. 15 years ago, Starz delivered what’s arguably its best historical drama with Spartacus. True to its name, Spartacus follows the exploits of the titular gladiator, portrayed by Andy Whitfield and later Liam McIntyre, as he becomes one of the greatest gladiators in the Roman Republic.

As expected of a series set in Ancient Rome, Spartacus was immensely bloody and featured plenty of sex scenes. However, unlike other shows of its ilk, it was actually rooted in history. Most shows often use a historical setting as a mere backdrop, but Spartacus made sure that everything, from the way it depicted gladiatorial combat to the power structures of the time, was as accurate as possible. Series creator Steven S. DeKnight said that he and producer Robert Tapert (Xena: Warrior Princess) came up with this approach thanks to doing extensive research on the real-life Spartacus:

“Once we started digging into it, the big surprise for me was how little is known about Spartacus. Especially his history before he broke out and started making trouble for the Romans. There’s literally a page and a half of stuff you can read, and it’s just scraps. It’s fragments from different historians. Most of them are 100 years old to 200 years old. His true history is just a complete mystery to everybody. It really gave a chance to dig into that storyline.”

That approach proved to be the right one, since it turned Spartacus into one of Starz’s biggest television franchises​​​​​​. It’s also engrossing beyond the violence and nudity, as watching Spartacus’ rise to power and the effects it has on everyone connected to him makes for a compelling chronicle that rivals Game of Thrones.

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‘Spartacus’ Launched An Entire Franchise

Image via Starz/ Courtesy: Everett Collection

As an early sign of Spartacus‘ success, it was renewed for a second season before the first even premiered. Before that, its first season Blood and Sand was followed by the prequel series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, which delved into the early lives of Spartacus’ owner, Quintus Lentulus Batiatus (John Hannah), and the gladiator Crixus (Manu Bennett), further adding depth to their characters’ lives before they met Spartacus. Season 2 also came with its own shake-up, as Whitfield was undergoing cancer treatment; he gave Starz his blessing to recast the role, leading to McIntyre taking over as Spartacus. McIntyre manages to both build on Whitfield’s performance and give Spartacus his own flavor.

Perhaps the wildest swing that Spartacus took was with its most recent entry, Spartacus: House of Ashur. House of Ashur focuses on Nick E. Tarabay‘s titular gladiator, who died in Season 2, and pulls him into an alternate universe where he takes control of the gladiator school where he was trained. Despite its bonkers premise, House of Ashur still managed to keep the same mix of blood, grit, and historical accuracy that made the original Spartacus a must watch series. Its recent cancelation marks the end of an era, both for the Spartacus franchise and for Starz as the channel recently underwent a split with Lionsgate.

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Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner?

Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt

Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.

🎖️Rambo

🍸James Bond

🏺Indiana Jones

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🔧John McClane

🎭Ethan Hunt

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Your Partner Has Been Assigned
Your Perfect Partner Is…

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

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Rambo

Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.

James Bond

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Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

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John McClane

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

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Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

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The Cast of ‘Spartacus’ Found Success With Another Genre

It wouldn’t be long before the cast of Spartacus became closely connected with another long-running television franchise, as most of them traded their swords and sandals for capes and cowls when joining the CW’s interconnected slate of DC Comics-based shows. On Arrow, Manu Bennett would portray Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, while Nick E. Tarabay played Captain Boomerang and Katrina Law made recurring appearances as Nyssa al Ghul, one of Ra’s al Ghul’s daughters. As for Liam McIntyre, he briefly appeared on The Flash as the Weather Wizard, but is set to portray another iconic comic book character as he’s taking the title role in the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine video game.

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Spartacus is proof that you can make a historical drama that’s actually true to history while still appealing to an adult crowd. While Starz is still making television, it’s yet to make a series that could match this one.


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Release Date
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2010 – 2013-00-00

Directors

Jesse Warn, Michael Hurst, Rick Jacobson, Mark Beesley, T.J. Scott, Chris Martin-Jones, Brendan Maher, Glenn Standring, Grady Hall, John Fawcett

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