Spartacus: House of Ashur (2025/2026) Review

I am a huge fan of The Spartacus show that came out back in 2010 and actually rewatched the whole of it in preparation of watching the new spinoff show Spartacus: House of Ashur. After many weeks, the finale of the show came to the UK today and I have watched it, so here is my review for the show. The premise shows an alternate universe where Ashur survived the events of Spartacus and was gifted his own Ludus. He has to navigate the world of politics, while leading his Gladiators to victory. 

Main Character

Nick E. Tarabay reprises his role as Ashur and he clearly loves playing this role and I love seeing him play this role when he is evil and sneaky like he was in the original show. He still has some of that here and those are my favourite parts of the show. However, because he is the lead here, they try and make us care and sympathise for him and I really just couldn't and I just think that is because it goes against everything that is the character.

Supporting Characters

Graham McTavish plays the new Doctore Korris and he is probably the best character in the show. He has the honour of a gladiator but there is more to him and he is a good character that would have fit in well with the original show. 

Dan Hamill as Celadus is probably the best of the Gladiators. He is one of the older Gladiators and has honour and respect for the ways of the role. I mean he isn't the most ground breaking character but he does well here. 

Tenika Davis plays Achillia as the new main character and honestly, I thought she was pretty bad. She is incredibly wooden and there wasn't much done here to make me care about her character, despite the fact the show really wants you too. 

The rest of the cast offer very little. There are plenty of political characters and I didn't care about any of them and the majority of the gladiators either had limited characterisation or they were just down right annoying. 

Story

The story is the part of the show that I found the most nonsensical. First of all the show, has no reason to exist and actually disrespects quite a lot of the original show. There aren't really any characters that I particularly liked and it just made little sense to me why they went the directions that they did. Also the Gladiators feel like a pretty big afterthought at times which is a shame for a show in this franchise. 

Script

The script is okay, there are some decent dramatic moments in there and some chuckle worthy moments. But it is nothing compared to the original Spartacus and I just think the writing doesn't do enough to make these characters interesting enough. 

Style 

Spartacus is well known for its violent action scenes and its over the top romantic scenes and this show still has all of that and in that way it does a decent job of keeping with this tone. Though, I sometimes think it comes across as a parody of the original show. Also the pacing isn't always great and I think 10 episodes was probably a few too many. 

Overall

Overall, Spartacus: House of Ashur is a below average massive disappointment for fans of the franchise. I don't really know who it is for as it isn't good enough for new fans and does things that will upset lifelong fans, I wouldn't spend your time on this one. 

Rating - 4/10