Liam McIntyre has been cast as the new lead role as “Spartacus” for Spartacus Blood and Sand Season 2 On Monday Liam McIntyre received some of the most exciting news of his career, and some of the most difficult: he learned that he had just been cast in the title role in a cable series — but as the replacement for Andy Whitfield in “Spartacus: Blood and Sand.” “It’s been the toughest thing,” Mr. McIntyre said in a telephone interview from his home in Melbourne, Australia. “Every actor dreams of getting a big break, a big opportunity. Andy’s such a wonderful actor. I don’t want to follow that guy, and everybody hurts that he’s had to give up the role, myself included.”

But the casting of Mr. McIntyre, a little-known Australian actor who will soon be carrying the second season of “Spartacus,” was necessitated after it was announced in the fall that Mr. Whitfield, who created the lead character in that hit Starz series about the Roman gladiator who eventually leads a slave rebellion, had had a recurrence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Mr. Whitfield announced his original diagnosis last March, and Starz said in May that it was producing a prequel series, “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena,” that would not feature his character, a strategy partly intended to give Mr. Whitfield time to recover.

But after Mr. Whitfield learned his cancer had returned, Starz was faced with a difficult decision. “Either we close down the show permanently,” said Steven S. DeKnight, the creator and producer of both “Spartacus” series, “and have one season and a prequel stand as a testament to what we had done, or look to find another actor to step into the role of Spartacus.”

Mr. DeKnight and his Starz colleagues were particularly encouraged to proceed with recasting the show after receiving an e-mail from Mr. Whitfield that said he wanted to see “Spartacus” continue.

After a few frenzied months of searching, the “Spartacus” producers discovered Mr. McIntyre on an audition tape in which he looked thin and haggard, and hardly seemed to possess the build of a gladiator.

“We needed someone that not only had that gravity and that manliness that the hero requires,” Mr. DeKnight said, “but he also had to have a sympathy and a compassion that just radiates.”

“The way he delivered everything was spot on,” Mr. DeKnight said of Mr. McIntyre, “but he looked like Christian Bale from ‘The Fighter.’ ”

In fact Mr. McIntyre had been working on a thriller called “Frozen Moments” for which the director had asked him to lose a significant amount of weight. (Invoking a different Christian Bale movie, Mr. McIntyre recalled: “When I got this role back in January, the director rung me up, he said: ‘Congratulations. Now, have you seen “The Machinist?” ’ I was a rake.”)

So Mr. DeKnight assigned Mr. McIntyre to a rigorous exercise and workout regime (“gladiator-camp hell, plus 10,” as Mr. DeKnight described it) and looked at photographs of the actor’s progress every two weeks before the commitment was made this week to hire Mr. McIntyre for the role.

Mr. McIntyre said it is not his intention to try to duplicate Mr. Whitfield’s performance when Season 2 of “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” begins production in Auckland, New Zealand, in the spring.

“As an actor, you never try to be someone else,” Mr. McIntyre said. “You can’t. I honestly think the reason I’ve got this far and now have got the role — I’d like to think I have the same soul as Spartacus, that Andy brought to it. But I guess it remains to be seen.”

Mr. McIntyre added: “Beyond that, Andy’s Spartacus is always going to be Andy’s Spartacus, and I would never try and emulate that. Or try to be him. I think that should stand alone as his legacy.”

Though he and Mr. Whitfield share an agent in Australia, Mr. McIntyre said he had not reached out to his predecessor. “Obviously I’d love to speak to Andy,” Mr. McIntyre said. “But he’s going through a lot. I don’t want to get in the way of that. Whatever it takes to get him well is more important. I send him my love, and I wish him well.”

While he keeps Mr. Whitfield in his thoughts, Mr. McIntyre is also slowly starting to think about what the future will hold for him, and what the responsibility of being Spartacus entails.

“All I know is my foreseeable future is living in the gym,” Mr. McIntyre said, adding, “they’ll tell me when I can start doing the lines and doing the performance. There’ll be some acting there eventually, I’m sure.”

Hey there Spartacus fans, now that the short 6 episode Gods of the Arena prequel is over, Season 2 is to be released in 2012.

Filming is beginning shortly for Season 2.

While speaking at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, Starz president and CEO Chris Albrecht announced that contrary to reports that the show would end due to the loss of lead Andy Whitfield, the network will be producing a second season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

As was previously reported, Whitfield was forced to exit the gladiator series to obtain further treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, despite earlier reports the star was free of the disease he was diagnosed with early last year. Now that it is confirmed Whitfield will not return, a new lead actor will be announced in the weeks to come, as production is slated to begin this April in New Zealand.

Expected to begin airing early 2012, the second season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand exposes Spartacus and his fellow gladiators to new environments and characters. According to producer Rob Tapert, this means fans will see a potentially different take on the character for the actor chosen to take over the role. “‘The season two story no longer takes place in the ludus. It’s a different world and different set of shoes to fill,” says Tapert.

While Whitfield’s diagnosis delayed production of the second season, it did lead to a prequel. Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, a six-episode series has released.

The question now becomes how will the second season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand fair amongst the cast change, a lengthy delay and increased competition? Programs like Camelot, also on Starz, and HBO‘s Game of Thrones will almost certainly piqué viewers’ interest with similar thematic elements, while having nearly a year longer to build their respective fan base. No doubt these concerns played a large role in the creation of this month’s prequel mini-series.

Spartacus Season 2 (Gods of the Arena) is now playing!

“Spartacus: Gods of the Arena” is a prequel born of adversity.

That’s the way Lucy Lawless describes the six-episode series that begins Friday night on Starz. In it, Lawless will reprise her role as the scheming Lucretia with John Hannah returning as her husband, Batiatus, providing a back story to last year’s surprise hit, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand.”

The prequel was dreamed up at the last minute as a way to bide time after Spartacus himself — actor Andy Whitfield — was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. A story line that paused to focus on the house of Batiatus and its gladiator school before Spartacus arrived would give Whitfield time to undergo treatment and recovery before returning to the series and its demanding fight scenes.

But then there was more bad news. Whitfield’s cancer returned, and he decided to bow out of the series to focus on his health.

“lt was disheartening, not only because we had a lot of expectations and were gearing up for Season 2 but because of how hard Andy was working,” said Carmi Zlotnik, who oversees programming for Starz Entertainment and production of Starz’s original series.

Steven S. DeKnight, the series’ creator and executive producer, said he wasn’t sure that the series could go on without Whitfield. A retelling of the 1960 historical movie starring Kirk Douglas, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” shocked audiences with its explicit sex and nudity, highly stylized fight scenes and over-the-top blood and gore.

But Whitfield elevated the series with his moving performance as a man who is kidnapped by Roman soldiers and made to fight, driven by the promise that if he succeeds, he will be reunited with his wife, who was also taken into captivity.

And it was Whitfield who insisted that the production move forward. In a statement to The Times, Whitfield said, “I had feared that the story would not be completed, and I am awed by Starz’s commitment and courage to seeing this story through to its conclusion in spite of some extraordinary circumstances.”

This week, Starz announced that a new actor will step into the role of Spartacus when Season 2 is expected to begin in January 2012: Australian Liam McIntyre.