Marcus Crassus Prepares To Battle Spartacus for STARZ

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Beware, Spartacus, for blood and danger awa

it you, now more than ever before. There’s a new villain headed to final season of Spartacus, premiering Friday, Jan. 25 at 9/8c on Starz, and our hero won’t be able to avoid him for long.

TV Guide explained that Spartacus, played by Liam McIntyre, “may have amassed 30,000 bloodthirsty followers”, but victory is never guaranteed. They will have to cross an army equal to the task led by newcomer Marcus Crassus, acted by Simon Merrells.

So, what’s so nasty about this particular foe? Well, Crassus isn’t your average bear. sources are calling him creative, sly, and political enough that sme very powerful people have him back. Case in point, Julius Caesar, acted by Todd Lasance, is a comrade with which he’ll pool his resources against Spartacus. This is especially important. Crassus is quite the fighter, as you can see in the cool photo above. He’s training, either to meet his maker, or to give Spartacus a run for his money. That’s him holding not one, but two swords.

Spartacus: War of the Damned returns on Jan. 25. That same night, Starz will welcome you on a new journey. At 10 p.m. Da Vinci’s Demons will premier, which comes from creator David S. Goyer. Goyer is one rock star of a writer and his usual milieu is super heroes, so I’ll bet he’s giving history one heck of a make over. Starz calls the project “historical fantasy.” In the series Tom Riley is the Renaissance era inventor who will show us another side of himself. Did you know Da Vinci was a “swordsman, lover, dreamer and idealist”? Interesting indeed!

As for Spartacus, his new big bad is acted by Simon Merrells, a British actor, who was spotted on 2010′s The Wolfman. He has also done some TV, but this is probably his highest profile gig yet, especially for American TV.