Comic-Con 2011: Spartacus: Vengeance Coverage and Panel

2010's Spartacus: Blood and Sand was one of the bloodiest, bare-fleshiest, sensationalistic shows on television last year. Luckily, starting in January 2012, we'll be getting titillated once again with the coming of the show's second season, Spartacus: Vengeance.

To find out more, we attended the Spartacus: Vengeance panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2011, where we heard all about the show from castmembers Liam McIntyre, Lucy Lawless, Manu Bennett, Dustin Clare and Katrina Law.

• The panel began with a trailer for the next season. Though the Spartacus is different, the over-the-top, sensationalistic action is still the same. For our money though, there were nowhere near enough bare breasts.
• The crowd got introduced to new Spartacus Liam McIntyre. He's described the process as "a mind-bending journey" and says he hasn't gotten used to it.
• McIntyre was a fan of the show before coming on board, and is committed to making season two as exciting as season one.
• Original Spartacus Andy Whitfield is said to be doing very well, but wants to keep details personal. He's also interested in working with creator Steven S. DeKnight, but he doesn't want to take his clothes off. Women in the audience were disappointed.
• To get up to the proper weight, McIntyre has been on an intensive weight-lifting program.
• In addition to McIntyre, the show is going through many other changes, including MANY character deaths.
• DeKnight says that season two sees Spartacus grow from a guy with an axe to grind to an actual leader, though as the title would imply, there's also a fair bit of revenge being taken.
• Lawless' character Lucretia did NOT die, but things aren't looking up for her, though Lawless says she'll claw her way back to "some platform of power."
• Bennett said that his character Crixus will learn to find common ground with other characters, and added that McIntyre is bringing something very strong and unique to the role of Spartacus.
• Bennett put over the writing on the show and how incredible it is at setting up drama. McIntyre follows that up by mentioning that DeKnight writes things that can't be done and expects people to figure out how to do them.
• Bennett said that in one removed scene, there was an orgy going on wherein the one-armed cook was flicking porridge on people.
• When asked "How are you going to keep it sexy?" DeKnight said that there will still be plenty of sexing going on in the new season. (Whew!)
• Katrina Law says that season two will involve her character Mira trying to make Spartacus fall in love with her. Law also put McIntyre over as being wonderful to work with.
• McIntyre says that the sexiness of the show is one of the things that "makes it exciting and cool." He then added that it's also "part of what makes it awesome."
• DeKnight's favorite bits of juicy dialogue come from his "alter-ego" Batiatus, but adds that its a testament to the actors for them to deal with his bizarre dialogue and all the inventive cursing.
• DeKnight says there will be more drinking songs coming up in the second season.
• When DeKnight turned in the first episode, the folks at Starz said they didn't understand the script because of how Shakespearean it is. Since then, he's tied to find a middleground between Shakespeare and Robert E. Howard.
• Most of McIntyre's experiences have been with Shakespeare prior to Spartacus.
• Fun Fact: Spartacus is the one character that doesn't curse.
• McIntyre says that Spartacus likely feels like how Shakespeare did in its original context: Juicy and cool.
• Bennett agrees that Spartacus is the "Shakespeare of today."
• A fan asked asked DeKnight how much of the first season he had to refilm in order to make things work with McIntyre. He said there was one sequence they had to do, but the show has very few flashbacks.
• McIntyre dispelled the rumor that Whitfield suggested him for the role, but said that Whitfield had called everyone and said that he wanted the show to continue, giving it his blessing to go one without him.
• A fan pointed out that since much more of Spartacus' later life is known than his earlier, he was wondering whether they would be including all of that as they move forward. DeKnight uses the historical stuff as his structure, but still retains a lot of latitude when it comes to personal interactions.
• The panel confirmed that Doctore Oenomaus will be back, along with Ilithyia, Ashur, Naevia, Agron, and a-lot more "hot beefcake."
• Dustin Clare did not wear a shirt during the audition process.
• Bennet's favorite fight scene was the one with Auctus in Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.
• For Bennett, the debauchery is a big part of the show, and he thinks, one of the things people love about it.
• A fan wanted to know if the stars were used to seeing one another naked yet. The answer, of course, is yes.
• Joseph DeLuca will be doing the music in the new season as well.
• DeKnight plans on sticking pretty close to Spartacus' historical end.
• A fan asked for a rage-fueled "I am Spartacus!" and suggested that Lucy Lawless help out due to her familiarity with battlecries. McIntyre then countered that we should all do it together in the spirit of the Kubrick film, and we did.
• A fan wanted to know how DeKnight balances pushing the envelope and jumping the shark. He sees jumping the shark as a move of desperation, and with as much story and character development that they have to get through, everything will stay grounded in emotional reality...with some "naked, bloody, kooky things."
• A fan wanted to know if Lawless is specifically drawn to sci-fi and fantasy, and she said that she likes to "utilize every part of her" to many cheers from the audience. She said that straight television shows leave her cold, and as she's not "particularly American," she ends up acting in rather wild worlds.
• Bennett explained that they use different weapons, including a real metal sword and a hard rubber sword, but sometimes they get swapped out, and an accident resulted in a big scar across Bennett's chest.
• DeKnight put over Daniel Knauf's contributions to the first season, but says that he was too tied up to come back.
• A fan asked if the guys get nervous during sex scenes with "those lovely ladies." Bennett said that he's more uncomfortable about the fact that Robert Tapert has cast him twice into roles that have sex with his wife, Lawless' character.
• They closed out the panel with another look at the trailer for Spartacus: Vengeance.