House of Ashur Debuts With 100% Rotten Tomatoes Score

The new gladiator series Spartacus: House of Ashur debuts with a perfect critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. House of Ashur‘s story is a sequel to Starz’s Spartacus, although it is set in an alternate timeline where the titular Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay) survives and seeks revenge.

On Rotten Tomatoes, House of Ashur has debuted with a 100% Tomatometer score ahead of the show’s two-episode premiere on December 5. The initial score is based on six reviews, meaning that it will likely fluctuate as more are added before and after the premiere. There is no Popcornmeter score yet.

In Collider‘s review, Jeff Ewing declares that “Spartacus: House of Ashur essentially pulls off the miraculous, leaning on the mythological extravagances of ancient Roman belief to rewrite history and give a character a new lease on life.”

RogerEbert.com‘s Kaiya Shunyata praises House of Ashur for being “a spin-off series that not only honors the legacy of its predecessor, but one that, at times, rivals it.”

If the 100% critical score holds, it would be a significant improvement compared to Spartacus‘ four seasons, whose Tomatometer scores varied from 52% to 73%. True to Shunyata’s review, this would make House of Ashur the rare kind of spinoff that is able to genuinely rival the series that came before it.

Spartacus creator Steven S. DeKnight returned to be the showrunner and an executive producer for House of Ashur, and Variety‘s review by Aramide Tinubu notes that “DeKnight’s world is as enticing as ever” in the spinoff.

While speaking with ScreenRant at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, DeKnight shared that there is a five-season roadmap for the Spartacus sequel. He also teased that he has ideas for other spinoffs set in this universe. Check out his comments below:

I always like to have an idea that a show has legs before I sign on. So, we roughly mapped out about five seasons, and that could be four seasons, could be seven seasons, all depending on how popular the show is. And on top of that, I have about four or five other Sparta-verse spinoffs in the wings if this is a big hit, which it will be, which it absolutely will be. There’ll be more. House of Hilara, was it?

Whether House of Ashur will ultimately get more seasons and spinoffs will depend on viewership, but a 100% score from critics bodes well that the show will be a hit for Starz and be well-received by audiences that want to see the story expand further.

In terms of other characters and actors who return from the original series, Lucy Lawless reprises her Spartacus role as Lucretia and appears in the premiere to change Ashur’s fate. This almost didn’t happen due to Lawless’ busy schedule, but it ultimately worked out, and provided a payoff to the prior history between Ashur and Lucretia.

Other cast members include Tenika Davis as Achillia, who is a female gladiator known as gladiatrix, Graham McTavish as the gladiator trainer Korris, Jordi Webber as the ambitious Tarchon, Jackson Gallagher as Julius Caesar, ​​​​​​​and Jaime Slater as Caesar’s wife Cornelia.

The Spartacus: House of Ashur cast also features Jamaica Vaughan as Hilara, Ivana Baquero as Messia, Claudia Black as Cossutia, India Shaw-Smith as Viridia, and Leigh Gill as Satyrus.