Ever since the first episode of Spartacus: Gods of the Arena aired, I fell instantly in love with the character of Gannicus. Yes Dustin Clare is real easy on the eyes, but it was the evolution of the character that really captivated me.

I’ve been trying to get Steven DeKnight, creator of the Spartacus series, to give me some spoilers as to how my beloved gladiator meets Spartacus during the new season, but he won’t budge! Today I had the opportunity to chat with Mr. DeKnight and though he refuses to ruin a juicy plot point, he did tell me this about the return of Gannicus.

Rosy: Could you tell me under what circumstance Gannicus makes his first appearance this season?

S. DeKnight: That would be giving away too much! I can tell you he comes back in a very unexpected way. It’s not what you would think.

One of the things I wanted to do from the start is that our band of heroes are not Robin Hood and his merry men. They have a lot of problems internally which is very historical because they kept breaking up into different groups away from Spartacus.

I can’t say when Gannicus comes back but it’s not a happy reunion. There are definitely a lot of problems that come with it.”

I have had the chance to preview the first two episodes and so I do want to give you all a big SPOILER WARNING in case you don’t want anything revealed. I will give away anything too big but in case you want to learn anything about what is coming up then this would be the time to check out one of our other fabulous stories!

Based on the previews released by Starz, you already know that Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) has survived the brutal attack by her former lover Crixus (Manu Bennett) though not with all her marbles. At first we don’t really know how on Earth she has made it this far all on her own.

The only evidence of her attack is a scar on her belly, which she seems absolutely clueless about until Ilithyia (Viva Bianca) points it out during their first meeting. So what can we expect to happen between these two this season?

S. DeKnight: Ilithyia and Lucretia, which are my two favorite characters to write; especially when they are with each other, they continue their “friend dance,” in a very convoluted unexpected way. What happened between those two is not what you would think is what is going to happen especially based where we left them at the end of season one.

They are in fine form, they really paint that storyline in an amazing kind of way.

Now before I go into talking about Liam McIntyre and his portrayal of the title character, I want to talk a bit about his relationship with Mira (Katrina Law). When the season opens, we see that she and Spartacus are still very much together. But as Mira continues to fall for the broken hearted gladiator, is there even a chance that the intensity of her feelings will ever be reciprocated?

S. DeKnight: Mira, as we left her in season one, she really responded to Spartacus and was falling in love with Spartacus. But Spartacus [inaudible] towards her but I wouldn’t call it love. Where we move with them [this season], they have moved into a quasi-relationship but its a relationship that is very bumpy and rocky and it may or may not work out in the end.

As far as Liam McIntyre and his portrayal of Spartacus is concerned, I think fans will embrace him wholeheartedly. He definitely captures the essence of what Andy Whitfield brought to the character while adding his own uniqueness to the mix.

The passion, the intensity, and the humanity are all present in his performance.

S. DeKnight: We never wanted to duplicate Andy, that will never happen. He was such a singular, amazing talent. But we wanted to find somebody that had the same base qualities of compassion.

I told all the actors in the audition, even though Spartacus might fly into a rage now and then, he never comes from a place of anger its always from a place of a wounded heart.

And we felt that Liam captured that essence.

It was announced last year that Mr. DeKnight had been signed to a two year exclusive deal with the Starz Network and since then we hadn’t really heard much more. I asked him whether this deal only pertained to his work on Spartacus or if the deal would potentially give us something new.

S. DeKnight: It doesn’t just pertain to Spartacus. I’m actually, at the moment writing a new project for Starz. It’s super, extra, crazy top secret, I can’t even give you a title. But there is something new in the works.

Something in the really early stages, it has not been greenlit. There are many, many, many hoops to jump through and stages to pass before its greenlit and announced as a show.

But its big and very, very exciting.

Don’t forget to tune-in to a whole new season of Spartacus: Vengeance beginning January 27th, 2012 at 10 pm only on Starz.

P.S. As an added bonus, I have a video interview I did with the cast from Comic Con that I hadn’t released yet. It’s part one of two videos and was edited months ago. I don’t want to hold back on the release of the interview any longer but understand that there might be questions about Andy Whitfield on there since it was done before he sadly passed away.

If you guys like it, I can quickly edit the actors who were not on this video due to length into a second part. Let me know!