The writers of "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" are not going to let Lucy Lawless die that easily. The actress plays Lucretia in the original Starz series and her character was among the fallen ones in the bloody season one finale. Lucretia dies in the initial script but Lawless wins over the crew's heart that her character is now made "still twitching at the end".

Showrunner Steven S. DeKnight, at the Television Critics Association tour on Saturday, August 7, revealed that Lawless is a lock for season two. "Starz called, they wanted her to come back," DeKnight recalled. "I said 'absolutely not, she's gotta die, that's the way the story goes.' Then the next day I called up [exec producer Rob Tapert] and said, 'Rob, I've got an idea'."

Beside in the new season, Lawless will also appear in the prequel which has been titled "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena". It was initially a stand-alone two-hour project but they have built an extensive storyline that it now spans six hours.

"We're thrilled to be able to go back and tell a lot of the things you hear about in Season 1," DeKnight explained what the prequel is about. "Little one-liners, like when Peter Mensah [Oenomaus] mentions his wife in one line -- now we've built an entire story around that."