After successfully making ancient history come alive then get all greased up and sexxxy with shows like Spartacus and Camelot, Starz hopes to do the same for the Renaissance with the forthcoming series Da Vinci’s Demons. Like those other shows it will be part history lesson and part smutty-yet-entertaining bullshit, exploring the “untold story” of Leonardo da Vinci’s “raucous youth” as he gallivants around Florence, a 25-year-old artist, dreamer, thinker, and frequent casual sex-haver.
In his press release announcing the eight-episode series, Starz representative Carmi Zlotnik said, “If modern day has Tony Stark, the Renaissance has Da Vinci”—and if that sounds like a dumbed-down analogy that just caused a thousand history professors to spew chamomile all over their tweed, it’s at least apropos, considering the man shepherding the project is David Goyer, who wrote Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, the upcoming Man Of Steel. Goyer even compared da Vinci’s “near-mythic” legend to that of Batman and Superman, and expressed excitement over the opportunity to explore his origin story—and if there’s one thing we know about David Goyer, it’s that he really, really loves origin stories. Goyer also said the show would be about “secret histories, genius, madness, and all things profane,” and on that last point he also expressed gratitude for being allowed to do it on Starz, “where the story can be as dark and challenging and irreverent as it deserves to be,” and also show boobs sometimes.