14 DAY TRIAL // Starz announced that, in light of Andy Whitfield’s condition getting worse (he’s battling cancer), it would proceed to the second season of “Spartacus” without him. CEO Chris Albrecht is now saying producers are nearly there with finding a replacement.
Whitfield, who first went on a break from the show upon the first diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, announced last year that he needed to go back to treatment because his condition had worsened.
As we also informed you at the time, this left producers with only two choices: either wait for Whitfield to complete the new and more aggressive treatment and recovery period, and then shoot with him, or move ahead with someone else.
Eventually, they chose the latter, but Albrecht says the decision was not an easy one, TheWrap informs. In fact, it must have been one of the most difficult ever made by them, yet it was the best.
“We all thought long and hard about whether it was a good idea not just because of the obvious challenge of replacing the title character, especially when he was portrayed so brilliantly by Andy,” Albrecht says.
“But also because of the creative challenge of where the first season left off,” he adds. At this point, they’re casting for the part and, with negotiations still a way to go, they’re getting closer to finding the man to fit Andy’s (large) shoes.
“We’re in great shape with casting. We have not made a final decision but we are... in the final stages of the decision and I expect it to be made within a few weeks,” the same Albrecht says, underlining that the second season is “in the final stages of the decision, not the negotiations.”
In the same interview, the CEO also underlines that, regardless of how painful it must have been, at the end of the day, the decision was a business one.
“Aside from the creative success that the show has become it is a big business success,” Albrecht says. He hopes fans will understand.
“So in a world where you’ve got to keep taking risks and doing things that maybe you didn’t think you’d do before, we’re going ahead with the series and we’re going to have a new Spartacus,” he adds.