well worth the weight

It had been a bittersweet season-three preem for that cast of Starz's "Spartacus: Vengeance" because they posed for pictures in the Cinerama Dome on Jan. 18 without lead actor Andy Whitfield, who gave in to non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in September. "Changing Andy was probably the most difficult things for everyone, not only appropriately but personally. Everyone understood him and loved him," creator-scribe Steven S. DeKnight stated concerning the actor who performed the titular role within the first season. Fans were quick to embrace broad-shouldered Liam McIntyre, who assumes the role of Spartacus. "I did not try to copy, I did not try to mimic. I figured that might be a shadow of the already amazing performance," stated the thesp. McIntyre's turn because the gladiatorial defector wasn't a lock, however. Initially, the Aussie actor was 45 pounds underweight. "He looked physically ill. I possibly could have (beaten him up) at this weight," DeKnight stated. "We put him on the workout retainer where he did not possess the job until he demonstrated he could gain all of the weight and appear good." Following the show's lengthy hiatus, everyone else gasped and cheered in the bloodstream sport onscreen that shown the cries for spectacular dying when it comes to. "They loved the bloodstream and also the gore. That's good to understand moving forward,Inch DeKnight stated in the Roman-designed afterparty in the Sunset Landmark. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com