Starz has ended its search for the new lead of Spartacus: Blood And Sand And So On, announcing that it will replace the ailing Andy Whitfield (who’s still battling non-Hodgkin lymphoma) with near-doppelganger Liam McIntyre, an actor who also appears to have been bred in the same Australian action star experiment that produced Sam Worthington. They are just churning these things out down under. McIntyre was most recently seen by American audiences in an episode of HBO’s The Pacific, and has reportedly spent the past several months enduring a “grueling” bulking-up process in order to earn both the part and the blessing of Whitfield himself. In making the announcement, Starz president Chris Albrecht also praised McIntyre’s “gladiator credentials,” which we guess means he’s killed people for sport?
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