Spartacus: Series revival to star Kiwi heartthrob Jordi Webber - Spy

Actor and singer Jordi Webber has a starring role in Spartacus. Photo / Instagram, @jordilegit

Spartacus: House of Ashur, the fresh follow-up to the original hit series, is set to return. With filming to take place in New Zealand, casting news is slowly being revealed, and Spy can confirm some of the show’s stars.

Ten years after last filming in New Zealand, Spartacus is back shooting in Auckland and Spy can reveal heartthrob actor and singer Jordi Webber, 29, has a starring role.

Webber is part of the cast headed by Nick Tarabay, who will reprise his character in the role of the titular Ashur, the villain from the original series Spartacus: Blood and Sand, which had Lucy Lawless and Manu Bennett as stars.

In December Spy revealed Spartacus: House of Ashur, the new revival series by franchise creator Steven S. DeKnight and Starz television network, was due to film on our shores this year.

Starz describes the series as a history-bending, erotic, thrilling, roller-coaster experience that builds on the original series. It will ask: What if Ashur hadn’t died on Mount Vesuvius at the end of Spartacus: Vengeance? And what if he had been gifted the gladiator school once owned by Batiatus, in return for aiding the Romans in killing Spartacus and ending the slave rebellion?

Nick Tarabay will reprise his character Ashur.

Today Starz announced the key cast joining Tarabay including Webber and fellow Kiwi Jamaica Vaughan, star of 800 Words; Outlander and House of the Dragon star Graham McTavish; Joker and Game of Thrones’ star Leigh Gill; Jupiter’s Legacy star Tenika Davis, The Shannara Chronicles’ Ivana Baquero; The Nevers’ Claudia Black and Supernatural’s India Shaw-Smith.

Scottish actor McTavish, who is famous for making New Zealand his second home, plays Korris, a former gladiator who won his freedom in the arena and is now Ashur’s doctor, training the gladiators in Ashur’s Ludus.

Webber plays Tarchon, a brash and headstrong gladiator, while Vaughan plays Hilara, a young, elevated house slave, deeply in love with Ashur.

When Spanish actress Baquero filmed The Shannara Chronicles in New Zealand last decade, she met her husband Kiwi actor James Trevena.

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Webber, who first came to national attention in boyband Titanium, has since had success in music and screen roles on both sides of the Tasman. Last year, Webber was living in Sydney and starring on hit Australian soap Home and Away. Earlier this year he starred in Stan TV’s Aussie megachurch series Prosper.

Before returning to New Zealand to start filming the revived Spartacus, Webber made a trip to Italy in March and when he was in Rome did some character research by visiting the Colosseum, where he told his Instagram followers he was fulfilling his childhood dream.

It is understood Spartacus: The House of Ashur, has been filming for a couple of months at studios in South Auckland, giving jobs to hundreds of local crew.

The actors have been spotted enjoying Auckland and its surrounds, including visiting Piha and Les Mills, which for a series based on the body perfect is essential.

Last weekend, Gill had his 40th birthday party, with many of the cast in attendance – including Webber, who along with friends, performed a rousing haka for him.

Ricardo Simich is the New Zealand Herald’s Spy Editor. Based in Auckland he covers all roads that lead to popular culture.