Filming of cable network Starz's
Spartacus: Blood and Sand season two has been delayed, but
producers are rolling out a six-episode prequel to be broadcast in
January that includes a new gay character.
Forty-one-year-old Australian actor and
dancer Josef Brown has been cast to the play Auctus,
gay entertainment website AfterElton.com reported.
Auctus is involved with gay gladiator
Barca (played by Antonio Te Maioha) in Spartacus: Gods of the
Arena. Barca's lover Pietros dies in season one of Blood and
Sand.
Executive Producer Steven S. DeKinght
said Auctus is “just as good a gladiator as Barca is and just as
deadly.”
“They obviously love each other, and
they have some great moments together, but they also have a very
jocular love affair. They don't mind smacking each other around,”
he added.
Brown's lean 6-foot-1 frame, dark eyes
and rugged good looks won over audiences around the globe as the
hunky star of the stage production of Dirty Dancing – The
Classic Story on Stage.
Filming of season two of Blood and
Sand has been put on hold while its star Andy Whitfield undergoes
treatment for early-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma.