With Spartacus drawing to a close with its upcoming final season Spartacus: War of the Damned set to premiere on Starz in January, we're left to wonder what series creator Steven DeKnight will do next. Starz answered that question when they recently announced that DeKnight has a new sci-fi project in development called Incursion. We spoke with him about it on Friday when we had the opportunity to sit with him to discuss Spartacus at Comic Con and he had some interesting details to share on what they have in mind for the series.
Before we get to that, for those who missed the recent announcement, here's the description Starz shared on the project:
“Incursion,” an epic science fiction action-thriller that follows a squad of soldiers caught in a war against a hostile alien race. Each season the battle will be fought on a new, exotic planet as humanity punches deeper into enemy territory. Grittily realistic combat, darkly complex characters and intrigue on a cosmic scale will permeate the tale of fighting men and women facing the pressures of war and an enemy unlike any ever seen.
I asked DeKnight about Incursion, specifically the mention of the characters fighting on a different planet each season. From the sound of it, they already have ideas about the kinds of settings they might explore (literally) for the show.
From a creative standpoint, you want that kind of excitement. From a standpoint of a war show, it made sense to have a different area of operation each season. Visually, I just found it very exciting. Let's do a jungle, let's do a desert, let's do an ice planet. Let's really explore those environments, and unlike Spartacus, we're actually going to go these locations. So, it won't be on green screen. We'll find a jungle, we'll find a desert, we'll find and ice flow…"
Using actual locations sounds amazing, but it could also prove to be limiting as far as the budget and (in the case of an ice planet) weather conditions. It also sounds like they'd aim to bring the same (or most of the same) main characters back each season. But if you're familiar with DeKnight's style from Spartacus, you know that he's not averse to killing off his characters if the story calls for it. With the mentioned battle scenarios involved in Incursion's premise, characters deaths seem inevitable. DeKnight confirmed as much. "Much like Spartacus there'll be main characters," DeKnight said. "But it's war, so somebody's going to get their head shot off sooner or later."
The more I hear about this project, the more I hope things work out and we see it airing on Starz (and soon).
And to see what he had to say about Season 3 of Spartacus, check out our video interviews here.
