HOW MANY EPISODES IN SPARTACUS SEASON 1 SERIES
The tricky thing about this series is it’s very well known in history things don’t end well. I didn’t quite have the very specific final moment until we started working on this season. PHOTOS: ‘Spartacus: Vengeance’ Who’s Who - Meet Season 2’s Playersĭo you have a specific scene in your mind for the final frame? We were still kicking around, “Do we do two more seasons? Do we do an extended 16-episode run?” Ultimately, a combination of story and production concerns made us decide to do 10 of the strongest episodes that we can. There was a bit of housecleaning at the end of that season to prep for this final season. Where the story was going, for instance Lucretia and Ilithyia ( Viva Bianca) really didn’t fit in world of Marcus Crassus and Julius Caesar ( Todd Lasance) in any kind of natural, organic storytelling way. It was one of the factors in the wholesale slaughter at the end of last season. We were 90 percent sure when we were working on the last couple episodes last season that this would probably be the last season. It’s like The Princess Bride: Cut out all the boring bits and just make the best, most rip-roaring-est tale we can to wrap up the series.ĭid you know when the show was renewed in November that this season would be its last? We thought, instead of repeating ourselves with one wave of Roman senators after another going after Spartacus, getting defeated, going after Spartacus, getting defeated, why not really condense the story, give the juiciest parts to Marcus Crassus ( Simon Merrells ). My original thought was that this show could go five to seven seasons, but we realized the actual history is very scattershot: The rebels went north, south, east, west, then back north, then broke apart, came back together. We’ve always had an ending - it’s written in history - so we knew where we were shooting for. I’ve always thought that five seasons was the perfect number you’ve got enough time to tell a great story, but there’s not so much real estate that you start to get a little flabby in the middle.
How long do you run a show? Do you run it until you can squeeze every last bit of revenue out of it, or do you end it on a high note? That was part of the decision to wrap up the show: The idea of ending the show when you’re on top and the audience still wants more instead of dragging it out until it starts to wane and you kind of limp to the finish line. It’s a bold move, and we talked about it with Starz. DeKnight: Shocking, isn’t it? It’s a bit unheard of to end a show when it’s doing better than ever. STORY: ‘Spartacus: Vengeance’ Finale Postmortem: Creator Addresses its Bloody Death Toll
The Hollywood Reportercaught up with DeKnight to discuss making the decision to end the series and how it factored in the bloody end to Vengeance, the franchise’s value to Starz and what’s next. In addition, the period drama that featured the shocking deaths of six major characters including Lucy Lawless‘ Lucretia in its Season 2 finale airs in more than 150 countries worldwide. Spartacus stands as the first original scripted drama the network developed in-house and has proved to be a valuable property for Starz, with its most recent season - Spartacus Vengeance - averaging more than 6 million viewers each week. Production is underway in New Zealand, with DeKnight already having penned the series finale. DeKnightagreed to conclude the Liam McIntyre starrer with a 10-episode run titled War of the Damned, which will kick off in January. The premium cable network and showrunner Steven S. The upcoming third season of Starz’s Spartacus will be its last.