Roman Scribe: Interview with Spartacus Creator Steven S. DeKnight
What have the Romans ever done for him? Lots, actually.

Steven S. DeKnight already has geek cred out the wazoo, having been a writer on Buffy the
Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse and Smallville as well as serving as a producer of the latter three. Since 2010, he’s been up to his ears in sandals, sex and severed arteries as the creator/producer/head writer for Starz’s Spartacus series. Its third and final season, given the subtitle War of the Damned, premiered Friday the
25th of January. We spoke to Mr. DeKnight about the decision to end
the series, how the epic nature of the show has changed and what corner of
genre TV he plans to tackle next. Be sure to visit Nerdist.com for the full interview with Steven S. DeKnight.
Nerdist News: War of the Damned is the third and final
season of Spartacus; what can we
expect from the culmination of the story?
Steven S. DeKnight: A lot of triumphs and tragedy, really. I think
this year’s subtitle is particularly apropos, War of the Damned, and really all sides are damned. I think people
can expect what they’ve always come to expect with Spartacus which is the grand spectacle, but also the really
heartfelt drama and some extremely gut-wrenching moments onscreen.
NN: Not too many shows get to choose when
they end, and how they end, and too often shows go on for longer than they
probably should; when and how did you guys make the decision to actually end it
after this season?
SSDK: Yeah, there was a lot of discussion about that. I feel the same way;
I watch quite a bit of television… probably shocking to everyone, but I do feel
that sometimes [it goes] passed the point of really strong, creative motivation and it becomes
a financial motivation. Because it’s a big hit, it’s making money, it fills a
necessary part of a network schedule and it becomes kind of a test of wills
between the viewer and the show of who’s going to blink first. We definitely
wanted to avoid that with Spartacus.
Originally, I had planned on 5-7 seasons and when we were getting close to this
season and looking at the war years, it becomes exponentially more expensive
and complicated to produce. And the history itself becomes somewhat repetitive
and a little more difficult to tell an exciting new story each season. So we
thought, you know, a little bit outside the box, why not tell 10 fantastic episodes, ramp up the series
on a high note and actually leave the audience wanting more?
For the rest of the interview, including plans for a Halo-inspired TV series, head on over to Nerdist.com.