Check out this behind the scenes look at the final season of Spartacus, entitled ‘War of the Damned.’ All of us at Think Hero were sad to hear about this being the final season, but I have to give respect to creator/executive producer Steven DeKnight for his decision to end the show. As many of you know, most shows try to stay on for as long as possible, which can hurt the show’s effectiveness, yet Steven DeKnight wants to end his show on a high note, by giving us the best season yet. What do you think of the footage?
-Press Release: “Spartacus: War of the Damned,” currently in production in New Zealand, takes place following the defeat of Roman commander Gaius Claudius Glaber. Spartacus and his men have amassed major victories against the Romans after the Battle of Vesuvius. These victories have not only forged the legend of Spartacus, but have greatly increased the ranks of the rebellion slaves to more than 30,000. Rome is indeed beginning to tremble at the threat Spartacus now represents.
The “Spartacus” franchise began its run Friday, January 22, 2010 with “Blood and Sand.” It was followed a year later with the prequel, “Gods of the Arena” (January 21, 2011). “Vengeance” hit the air on January 27, 2012 and “War of the Damned” is scheduled to air January 2013.
“Spartacus: War of the Damned” sees the return on Liam McIntyre (Spartacus), Manu Bennett (Crixus), Dustin Clare (Gannicus), Dan Feuerriegel (Agron), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Naevia) and Ellen Hollman (Saxa). This year, Todd Lasance joins the cast as Gaius Julius Caesar, along with Simon Merrells, who will be playing Marcus Crassus and Anna Hutchison as Laeta.
-David Griffin (Follow @griffinde on Twitter)
I can't believe this is going to be the final season of Spartacus. I've watched and enjoyed the past 3 seasons and even morned the suddenly loss of Andy Whitfield after season one and wondered where the show would go from there but they did a great job of backfitting a prequel to give us the story of Gannicus, who has been my favorite character! I too admire the show for going out on it's own terms. Well at least we know one thing about the final season…the deaths will be SPECTACULAR!
You mean SPARTACULAR
Well firstly the production seems to have the high standards it used to have during the previous seasons.
However secondly serious questions arise about the decision to stop the show after this season:
1)The story won't have the historical acuracy it used to have till now.In the 1st episode we will see Spartacus with thousants to follow him.So many battles and events won't be presented.
2)We know now that the story of Spartacus as it is presented in this series lacks ballance.The most important battles and events historically happened AFTER the battle of Vesuvius.In this series 3 seasons were spent to show the events that led to this battle and just 1 season for the most important historical events.
3)In just 10 episodes (remenber that they will have to squize many battles inside there) no serious character development will be possible.We know now that our favourite villans in this show will always be Batiatus,Lucretia,Ilithia and Ashar.The actors that play crassus and Ceasar won't have the time to become like the previous villains
4)The announcement of the ending of this shaow makes me suspect that the deaths of so many characters at the end of the final season was not a coincidence.I suspect that the decision to end the show had already been taken and so they got rid of many characters to finish it quickly.(The death of Ashar,a character that had so much more to give to the show was s-th totally anticlimatic in my opinion).
Finally and most importantly I will say why I think the show is ending so quickly.I believe it has nothing to do with ending the show at its peak e.t.c.This is the official explanation of Stephen De Knight.The true cause of the premature ending lies I think in 2 words:RISK and BUDGET.They were probably afraid of the huge budget that demanded the presentation of the huge historical events and the major battles of Spartacus.It's one thing making season inside the ludus and the arena and another having to present major battles with tenths of thousants soldiers!So they were afraid of a financial disaster after the end of this show and order to minimize the risk,they decided to make just one more season.