No Incest on Spartacus Because of Game of Thrones

Warning: Spartacus-related spoilers await you…

Jupiter's C***! If you're like us here at IGN TV then you can't wait for Spartacus: Vengeance to erupt all over your TV screen on Friday, January 27th. Having just wrapped shooting for the season, and about to enter into pre-production on next season, EP/Creator Steven S. DeKnight sat down with IGN to talk about the latest bloody chapter, in which Spartacus, Crixus, Mira and the rest of the renegade slaves are on the run from the cruel man who originally sold Spartacus and his wife into slavery, Gaius Claudius Glaber (Craig Parker).

We spoke to DeKnight about the passing of Andy Whitfield, new star Liam McIntyre, villains beyond Glaber and the surprising lack of incest on a show as extreme as Spartacus.

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IGN: First off, where do we find Spartacus and the slaves at the outset of this season?

Steven S. DeKnight: With this season we pick up about six to eight weeks after the events of Season 1, with the attack on the ludus. And the rebels are out and about and what was always planned, from the beginning of Spartacus, was that I didn't want, after they broke free, for them to be Robin Hood and his Merry Men. They are not getting along. There's internal conflict. There's difference of opinion. Not everybody's on the same page. And this is something that will carry us through a good chunk of the series. So they are out but their survival is not guaranteed. We didn't want to go from breaking out to them having 60,000 people. This is the season when you're going to watch and see Spartacus become a leader. He's still struggling with that mantle.

Check out the opening from Spartacus: Vengeance! (NSFW)

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IGN: And what about Oenomaus (Peter Mensah)? He's not really a part of the group. From what I've seen, he seems to be in a really dark place.

DeKnight: He's a man without a country. The House of Batiatus, as we saw in Gods of the Arena, was really important to him. And we've laid hints about the bond between Oenomaus and Batiatus' father, Titus. And this season we get to explain exactly what happened between them and why Oenomaus feels such a debt to the House of Batiatus. And having complacently been a part of the downfall of the House of Batiatus, he is wracked with guilt and he feels as if he has no place in the world anymore.

IGN: Speaking of the ludus, it still plays an integral role this season. Glaber uses it as his base of operations. Was it kept around to give this season a sense of familiarity?

DeKnight: Yes, indeed. It was partly that and it was partly due to the budget. We had this extremely expensive set and we needed a place to put our "big bad" for the season. So we had conversations about it and we thought about Glaber taking over the House of Batiatus and since Glaber, at the end of Season 1, becomes the patron of the House of Batiatus it's completely within his right to seize the property.

IGN: So many people loved the character of Batiatus - enough to watch an entire prequel series about him. But he was the villain of Season 1. People don't love Glaber. He's a true bad guy. But who's beyond Glaber? Because it seems, as far as Spartacus getting revenge goes, that Glaber is an endpoint.

DeKnight: Well, eventually, it will be Marcus Crassus. Who we've mentioned in every season. Every season you'll hear the mention of Marcus Crassus. If you remember, in Season 1, Marcus Crassus was the cousin of Licinia, the woman who Ilythia beats to death after she finds out that Ilythia slept with Spartacus. So Marcus Crassus, historically, is the last person who went after Spartacus. So eventually we will get to him.

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DeKnight talks about Andy Whitfield, new star Liam McIntyre and the surprising lack of incest on Spartacus on page 2...