Spike TV, being a man’s network that’s just for men, must cater to the fickle whims of the manly men that comprise its audience. That means if men like Ultimate Fighting and the occasional Star Wars marathon, then Spike must oblige. In today’s modern society, though, with its constantly diminishing reliance on traditional gender roles, the men of tomorrow will almost certainly like different things than the men of right now.
Spike, to its credit, has had its manly ear to the ground this whole time and is now shifting to meet the changing winds. It knows that future man doesn’t like shirtless wrestling or wars in the stars, it likes dramatic reenactments of historical events. That’s why Spike is making that show about King Tut that stars Ben Kingsley, and it’s why Spike is now making a limited event series about the Crusades. This comes via The Hollywood Reporter, which reports that Spike is developing The Crusaders with Pierce Brosnan as an executive producer.
The miniseries will be written by Gladiator’s David Franzoni and Predators’ Michael Finch, and it will follow two knights who travel to Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. Along the way, they’ll reportedly face “Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, the Hashshashin, and ultimately their own personal demons.” The inclusion of that last one makes it sound like they might face literal demons, which would make The Crusaders less of an educational drama and more of a Game Of Thrones ripoff, but men will probably be entertained either way. It’s actually pretty easy to do that.