Spartacus House of Ashur debuts with two-episode premiere December 5

Starz has released an explicit red band trailer for Spartacus House of Ashur and announced the series will premiere with a two-episode debut on December 5, followed by weekly episodes on the Starz app and on-demand platforms. The new installment reimagines the Spartacus saga in an alternate timeline in which the gladiator Ashur, played by Nick E. Tarabay, survived and has risen from slave to master of his own ludus, setting off a new cycle of arena combat and Roman political maneuvering.

The trailer emphasizes graphic violence and sexual content, prompting the network to make both a red band and a less explicit green band trailer available. It introduces Ashur’s effort to secure power by recruiting a prominent gladiatrix, Achillia, played by Tenika Davis, and mounting spectacles intended to distinguish his House. The official synopsis poses the central conceit: "What if Ashur had lived, and the Romans rewarded his treachery with the gladiator school where he once bled? Welcome to the House of Ashur," and frames betrayal and political scheming as core elements of the new narrative.

Alongside Tarabay and Davis, the ensemble cast includes Graham McTavish as Korris, Jordi Webber as...