Warning! The following article contains major spoilers for the Spartacus: House of Ashur Season 1 finale. If you’re not yet caught up with the series, return after watching “Hail Caesar” or continue on at your own discretion.
When Spartacus: House of Ashur was first announced a few years ago, the spinoff series bringing back Nick E. Taraby’s titular villain seemed like one of those incredibly violent shows where anything and everything could happen. And, in the Season 1 finale, the highly watchable Starz series gave audiences a shocking, history-changing death when Ashur killed Julius Caesar. Yes, that Julius Caesar. With that, CinemaBlend had to ask the show's creator about what this could mean for Season 2.
Ahead of the Spartacus: House of Ashur finale’s premiere on the 2026 TV schedule, I caught up with series creator and showrunner Steven S. DeKnight. It was during our conversation that DeKnight opened up about why Ashur would kill someone so powerful, and the EP also explains what this could mean for Tarabay’s character moving forward:
Throughout the entire season, Ashur is trying to be accepted by the Roman elites. So he's trying to play by their rules, to move up in the ranks, and he gets worked over. He just gets totally emotionally devastated by trying to play by those rules. He finally snaps at the end.
Despite being a dominus in charge of his own ludus throughout the show’s first season, Ashur never gets the respect from the Roman elite, especially when it comes to Jackson Gallagher’s Gaius Julius Caesar and his wife, Corenelia, played by Jaime Slater. Considering he's referred to as “The Syrian,” mocked, used, abused, and embarrassed more times than you can count, it’s easy to see why the show’s anti-hero would finally snap.
So where does this leave Ashur, his house of gladiators, and the rest of the Roman Republic moving forward? Well, Starz has yet to formally announce a second season, at the time of this writing. However, DeKnight still hinted at where things could go from here for Ashur:
By killing Caesar, it's two things. It's cathartic. And it's also indicating to the audience that Ashur in Season 2 is going to be unleashed. He's no longer concerned with being accepted by the Romans. He now wants the Romans to bow to him.
That point DeKnight makes is made abundantly clear in the final moments of the episode. During that scene, Ashur calmly and triumphantly says, “Hail Caesar” after taking out the historical figure who made his life a living hell.
In fact, this whole scenario that played out in the finale is the very thing DeKnight pitched to Tarabay when he contacted him a few years ago about bringing the Spartacus franchise back, along with his character. DeKnight recalled:
You know, that was really early on when I pitched the series idea to Lionsgate and Starz, I had that in there. And when I called up Nick Tarabay, this would have been about, I don't know, three years ago now. I said, ‘Nick, what are you doing for the next, you know, five or six years? Do you want to come do this show?’ And part of my pitch was, ‘At the end of season one, you kill Julius Caesar, and the last line is hail Caesar.’ And he loved it.
Needless to say, Ashur is feeling more empowered than ever. Not only that, but a storm is definitely on the horizon with the fallout of Julius Caesar’s untimely passing. With all of that in mind, it's definitely going to be intriguing to see where things are going for Spartacus: House of Ashur.
Now, we just need to figure out if or when Season 2 is actually happening. In the meantime, relive the thrills of House of Ashur's first season using a Starz membership.
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