Spike will take shows about political intrigue and conniving puppet masters back to the days of King Tut

Spike TV is getting back in the original series game, so that it doesn’t get pigeonholed as that one network with the video game awards and Entourage reruns. It already has a Whitey Bulger show and a series dramatizing declassified documents from the Benghazi attacks—and now the network has a new project aimed at fans of the Brendan Fraser Mummy films and History Channel series like Vikings. Deadline reports that Spike has committed to a six-part “event series” about King Tut, from the same production company that made The Kennedys. Based on new DNA evidence from research on the ancient mummy (and, most likely, the success of shows like House Of Cards, Political Animals, Scandal), the miniseries will explore the young pharaoh’s rise to power, as well as the three advisors who fought against each other to control Tutankhamun and usurp the throne. There’s a pretty good chance it will sweep incest, deformities, and birth defect storylines under the sarcophagus, as these are things that could possibly detract from pretty people doing cable-appropriate bad things.