Aside from low viewership, one factor that led to this cancellation is that Starz does not own House of Ashur. Lionsgate owned the network for nine years until mid-2025, so it was not an in-house production, making the financial situation more difficult.
Steven S. DeKnight, who had worked on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Smallville and Dollhouse, created Spartacus, which premiered in 2010 and aired until 2013. After the first season, which was subtitled Blood and Sand, DeKnight and Starz developed a six-episode prequel called Spartacus: Gods of the Arena as a response to star Andy Whitfield's cancer diagnosis. After the actor died in 2011, Liam McIntyre replaced him as Spartacus for the remaining two seasons, which were called Vengeance and War of the Damned, respectively.
Throughout its run, Spartacus, which earned a 64% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, racked up nominations at the Creative Arts Emmys, SAG Awards and People's Choice Awards, and won Best Supporting Actress on Television (Lucy Lawless) and Best DVD/Blu-ray TV Series at the Saturn Awards.
After the series ended, DeKnight moved on to other shows like Daredevil and Jupiter's Legacy but returned to the gladiator world in 2025 with the spinoff Spartacus: House of Ashur.
More to come...
English (US) ·