In other Raimi news, a long rumoured casting coup has been confirmed; Lucy Lawless has joined Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a television show being produced by the same team behind Xena. Rumour has it that Lawless plays Lucretia, a slave owner who runs a gladiator camp with her husband. Having fallen on hard times, they pin their hopes on Spartacus to reclaim their standing in the arena.

I only saw Xena once or twice when it originally aired, but I dug in when I started research for a book on sword and sorcery movies, and I found the show to be on par with many of the best of them. It’s heartening to see this crew stoke the flames of the sword and sandal resurgence, and it will be interesting to see what Lawless does with a character that seems so unlike the role she’s best known for. Speak up, Xenites! Are you excited by the possibility of Lucy Lawless taking up the sword once again?