Steven S. DeKnight’s “Spartacus,” which aired on Starz from 2010 to 2013, brought the sword-and-sandal genre to the small screen with roaring success. The series starred Andy Whitfield and, following Whitfield’s death in 2011, Liam McIntyre as the titular Roman gladiator-turned-revolutionary in a gritty, R-rated take on his rise and fall. When Starz first announced plans for “Spartacus,” reports described the series as aiming for a graphic-novel-style aesthetic, drawing comparisons to Zack Snyder’s comic book film “300.” What fans might not have been aware of, though, was that the series was produced by one of the most successful comic book movie directors of the early 2000s.
While DeKnight, a filmmaker and comic book writer, created “Spartacus,” the series was co-produced by Sam Raimi. Before turning his attention to Ancient Rome, Raimi directed all three Tobey Maguire-led “Spider-Man” movies. Having made his name directing “The Evil Dead” and its sequels, Raimi was well-versed in darker shades of storytelling before he took on the noticeably more vibrant and family-friendly “Spider-Man” in 2002.
Raimi ended up working as executive producer on every season of “Spartacus.” While it was harsher and grittier than much of Raimi’s earlier work, it was not his first experience with the sword-and-sandal genre on television. Raimi had previously been an executive producer on “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.” After “Spartacus,” Raimi eventually returned to comic book films by directing 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”