Steven S. DeKnight on Spartacus: Vengeance Finale (Interview)

BE WARNED: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

Spartacus creator Steven DeKnight defends the finale massacre, teases third season.

In a shocking turn of events, the slaves’ rebellion against Rome got extra-bloody and a third of the cast met their untimely demise. DeKnight, having cut his teeth in the Whedonverse as a writer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Dollhouse, knows how to kill off a beloved character. But Friday’s episode seemed excessive even for a show best known for its high body count. Yet DeKnight is far from apologetic when it comes to explaining why so many had to fall in service of the story.

The most shocking death of the season ending was that of Lucretia, played by the series’ biggest star, Lucy Lawless. Still reeling from the events of last season’s finale, Lucretia cut out pregnant rival Ilithyia’s baby and hurled herself and the newborn off a cliff to meet her husband in the afterlife. In addition to Lucretia, Ilithyia (Viva Bianca), and the baby, former gladiator-trainer Oenomaus (and current new addition to HBO’s True Blood), scheming Syrian Ashur, and Spartacus’ love interest Mira also made their last appearances.

“I never really regret killing a character off,” he begins. “I feel like when I do kill a character off, it serves a specific purpose. Either that character has run its course or that character needed to die to propel the hero to further his direction. That said, there are plenty of actors that I really miss and plenty of character traits that I miss.”

DeKnight expected Lucretia’s exit to generate some hate mail, as every character death does. Spartacus fans can sometimes be as unruly as the extras populating the arena scenes. Still, while Lawless will be missed as much as the actor that so memorably portrayed her husband, John Hannah, Lucretia was living on borrowed time all along.

“The decision to kill Lucretia’s character actually starts way back at the end of Season 1, when I decided to kill her the first time. It always makes me chuckle when I read that people are saying ‘Ah, you killed Lucy Lawless! I’ll never watch the show again!’ Because in my mind, Lucretia got a reprieve. She was in a six-episode prequel and then another entire season when she was supposed to be dead at the end of Season 1.”

There was no room for Lucretia and Ilithyia in the new direction the show is taking. “Their storyline had to end together in grand, operatic fashion.” DeKnight says this with a swell of pride in his voice.

In another game-changing move, Spartacus skewered the man ultimately responsible for selling him and his wife into slavery. With Gaius Claudius Glaber dead, Spartacus’ personal stake in this war is gone. And after the death of his lover Mira, Spartacus finds himself emotionally distant from all, fearing that anyone who gets too close will end up dead. Figuring out what he is fighting for next will propel the early part of season three, which picks up six months after the battle on Vesuvius. And of course there’s bigger and badder enemies to face as Rome throws its full might against the rebels.

“Next season we finally – after three seasons of talking about it – be introduced to Marcus Crassus and will start that section of the war…[W]e’re actually going to jump forward about six months.”

Crassus enlists a young (around age 27) Julius Caesar, exploiting just a bit the sketchy historical records of the early military career of the future emperor’s life. Spartacus has little desire in being historically accurate, preferring, as DeKnight affectionately says, being “historically adjacent.” This will give audiences a very different portrayal of Caesar.

Though the tumultuous relationship between Lucretia and Ilithiya can never be recreated, their deaths left the show bereft of strong female leads. DeKnight is keenly aware of this and promises that three new women in the Roman camp will have big roles in the next season. Frustratingly coy with information, he did discuss how historically, Crassus got his intimidating amount of money from his wife’s family. That power dynamic could provide some interesting tension going forward, if she’s indeed one of the new faces.

Former body slave Naevia and Teutonic warrior-woman Saxa will come to prominence next year, too. Viewers might have noticed the flirty glances between Saxa and charismatic fan-favorite gladiator Gannicus in the finale. Will Gannicus teach Saxa how to speak English? (Yes, that’s a euphemism for knocking sandals.) DeKnight hinted that she’s game, but Gannicus is rarely predictable.

This season’s most adorable couple was the same-sex relationship between gladiator Agron and freed slave Nasir. Spartacus really has something for everyone, including romance fans of all orientations.

“We did have many discussions early on about a same-sex couple. Should we do something different and make it two women? But (producer) Rob Tapert and I, in a stunning male turnaround, both of us felt like it was kind of easy and pandering….We didn’t want to take the easy way out.”

The new season, as yet without a subtitle, promises to be bigger and full of surprises for Spartacus and his army as well as viewers. Though we’ve said goodbye to the Iudus, to Capua, and the arena for good in the transitional season that was Spartacus: Vengeance, there’s a whole Republic to explore. And things are going to get murkier.

“Historically people have a very romanticized vision of Spartacus and his rebels escaping and fighting for freedom. Whereas in reality, if you’ve read history — and now of course the history was written by the Romans — they escaped and raped and pillaged and robbed their way through Italy, through the Republic, very brutally exacting their revenge. This brutality is something we didn’t want to shy away from., this idea of war crimes and ‘How do you not become the enemy you’re fighting?’

“So it is a very dirty season.”