SDCC Spartacus Panel

In an effort to promote the series’ conclusion, Liam McIntyre (Spartacus), Manu Bennett (Crixus) and series creator and executive producer Steven S. DeKnight were on hand for the panel, but as I was going to find out, just because they’re the ones listed to appear does not mean they’re the only ones that would.

Past Spartacus Comic-Con panels have been met with great fan-fare, and given the fact that this would be the absolute last one, meant that although I hadn’t seen the series yet, I did not want to miss this one. After all, there was the promise of a sneak peek at what DeKnight describes as an “epic on a scale you will not believe.” Half naked, sweaty men, total carnage, okay I was in, and it was a packed house for the panel.

DeKnight talked a lot about sticking the landing, and the pressure to get this final season (premieres January 2013 on Starz) right for the fans. "Let's make the biggest, most epic season ever and go out on a high," he said. That being said, they had to condense down a large chunk of history to squeeze it all in, so it'll be action-packed, but not 100 percent factual, timeline-wise. "Don't write a high school paper based on the show," DeKnight joked.

In fact, there was so much death and carnage that McIntyre said they actually ran out of fake blood to use while filming "Spartacus: War of the Damned." Good news for fans of the bloodier parts of the show!

But I think the highlight of the panel for many was when Bennett talked about the war dance they all do, called Haka, to send off cast members whose characters have been killed, and there have been more than a few. He showed the audience a bit of it, and lifted his shirt, really getting into it, which got huge cheers from the crowd.

The biggest cheers were for the panel's surprise guest: Lucy Lawless, who played Lucretia. She joined the guys on stage and praised them for letting her play such a "criminally insane" character.  And she was the first of many. It wasn't long before the rest of the "Spartacus" gang popped on stage, Nick Tarabay, Peter Mensah, Craig Parker, Katrina Law, Lesley-Ann Brandt and Viva Bianca came out, getting the whole crowd cheering on their feet.

But just because they came out, don’t expect any of them will be magically resurrected for this final season: "Yes, I'm actually dead," Viva Bianca confirmed about her character, Ilithyia, though both she and Lawless joked about the amount of finger twitching they snuck in, you know just in case the writers wanted to change their minds.

And if you’ve yearned for that iconic “I am Spartacus” moment, you just might get it. DeKnight hinted that  they "may tip [their] hat to it." And even though the show is approaching its final bow, the writer did hint that a movie or a spin-off series "could happen."