GRAND VIZIER AY (Ben Kingsley)

Ben Kingsley stars in the key role of Ay, the Grand Vizier to King Tutankhamun, who wields tremendous power and influence as the top advisor to the young Egyptian ruler. Click here to see a one-minute video of the cast of TUT discussing the complexities possessed by character Ay.

KING TUTANKHAMUN (Avan Jogia)

Avan Jogia is the young renowned Egyptian ruler, King Tutankhamun. Click here to see a video profile of King Tut. Click here to see a one-minute video of Avan describing his experience playing the legendary King Tutankhamun.

GENERAL HOREMHEB (Nonso Anozie)

Nonso Anozie as the savvy military, yet power hungry, strategist General Horemheb. Click here to see a one-minute video about the general who seeks to fight for an everlasting Egypt.

ANKHE (Sibylla Deen)

Sibylla Deen portrays Ankhe, the calculating and conniving sister-wife of King Tutankhamun. Click here to see a one-minute video and learn why Ankhe chooses to protect the legacy of Tut, even if it means sacrificing her own happiness.

SUHAD (Kylie Bunbury)

Kylie Bunbury plays Suhad, the beautiful and endearing girl of Mitanni descent who develops a strong bond with the young Egyptian king, despite the fact she is not of royal bloodlines. Click here to see a one-minute video about this Egyptian commoner, whose love for King Tut puts her amidst those with extraordinary power.

HIGH PRIEST AMUN (Alexander Siddig)

Alexander Siddig as High Priest Amun, a major political figure who holds great influence in King Tutankhamun’s inner sanctum. Click here to see a one-minute video about this high priest who, even though he may have the ear of the gods, fights to be heard by King Tut.

KA (Peter Gadiot)

Peter Gadiot is Ka, King Tutankhamun’s close confidant and seemingly loyal friend from childhood who harbors a secret love for Ankhe, Tut’s wife. Click here to see a one-minute video and learn about Ka's influences over his best friend.

LAGUS (Iddo Goldberg)

Iddo Goldberg portrays Lagus, an Egyptian soldier who develops a special bond with King Tutankhamun. Click here to see a one-minute video and meet this committed soldier, a man of the people and trusted servant of King Tut.

If you want to know nothing about the episodes at all, skip this section. Provided by Spike TV, this episode guide includes general episode descriptions and specific plot details.

NIGHT ONE
Debut: SUNDAY, JULY 18 (9-11pm ET/PT)
Controlled for nearly 10 years by the powerful Vizier Ay and the formidable General Horemheb, Tutankhamun is determined to wrest control of his kingdom -- and eliminate those who conspire against him.

NIGHT TWO
Debut: MONDAY, JULY 19 (9-11pm)
While the Mitanni continue their plot to conquer Egypt, Tut must contend with a deadly illness spreading through the kingdom -- and an unexpected betrayal from his most trusted inner circle.

NIGHT THREE
Debut: TUESDAY, JULY 20 (9-11pm)
Tut sets out to achieve final victory against the Mitanni, and must destroy the last of his enemies within the Palace to secure his place in history.

QUESTION: How did this story come to you?

ANSWER: It goes back about five years. Greg Gugliotta, one of our executive producers, called me up and said “King Tut.” I said what about him? And he said, “No one’s done it.” And I said, “What's the story,” and he replied, “I don’t know. You figure it out.” I grabbed a legal pad and I wrote “Tut?” I sat on that for two years because I didn't know the way into the story. I did lots of research on the surface level, about Tutankhamun’s advisors, what he did, what he accomplished and the conspiracies… But for me, it wasn’t a plot. How do I make it relevant? What changed for me was when I read that Tut had a temple built in Giza where the Pyramids are. The Pyramids were built over 1,000 years before he was born and Tut wanted to gaze at them the same way we do, with the same wonder. That's when I realized that Tut was not that different from us. I was then able to start identifying him with wants, needs, fears and hopes and get into the story that way.

QUESTION: What is the story of Tut being told in this miniseries?
 
ANSWER: We’re telling the journey of Tut from boy to man, his growth as a human being and his desire to do good for his people. There are other characters around him vying for power. He has the power but he has to learn to control the power and use it for something. How is he going to use it? He can use it for good or bad. We’ve chosen to formulate a character who wants to do well. However, he finds out that it’s almost impossible with all of the machinations going on in the political landscape. The story is Tut’s personal journey of figuring out who he is, how is he going to be remembered, and, will history look at him the way it did his father who was despised, or will it look at him as his grandfather, who was revered.

QUESTION: What was going on in Egypt before Tut became pharaoh?

ANSWER: Egypt was at the height of its powers. Most other kingdoms or nations were really just tribal groups. Nonetheless, there was a lot of chaos because his father, Akhenaten, had disbanded many of the gods and created a monotheistic society where the god Aten was the one true god and he, Akhenaten, embodied that. That was at a time when people looked to the gods for all of their needs: for crops, fertility, love, food on the table - there was a different god for each need. Now they weren’t allowed the freedom to worship as they had, so it was a time of great upheaval. Akhenaten was murdered because of this. When Tut took over at the age of 9, his handler, the Grand Vizier, brought the old religion and gods back. But Tut discovers that although the people have their gods back, they’re being exploited by the priests. The High Priest Amun becomes part of the triangle of adversaries Tut needs to dispense with.

QUESTION: Please tell us about Queen Ankhesenamun.

ANSWER: Ankhe lives through many tragedies. She is married to Tut, her half-brother, but she’s in love with Ka. She respects her position as Queen which frustrates Ka and drives Ka against Tut, who is his friend from childhood. When Suhad, Tut’s lover who is half Mitanni, arrives in the palace, which is Ankhe’s domain, Ankhe must fight for survival. Ankhe knows she will be out if she cannot conceive a baby. She loses Ka, she loses Herit, her handmaiden, and she loses her baby. So she turns on Suhad in a vicious way. 

QUESTION: Tell us about the challenges of filming the big battle scenes in TUT.

ANSWER: The epic battle that takes place between the Egyptian army and the Mitanni invaders in the second hour was the most complex sequence we shot in the entire show. There were numerous moving parts and more than a thousand background extras and crew working over five days shooting the battle.

The Mitanni and Egyptian soldiers numbered 800 stunt performers and extras and they fought with shields, bow and arrows and swords. We chose a location where ten miles of scrub and desert spread behind the action.   We had to make sure that the performers could hear me half a mile away, and that took time and practice.  Fifty people with radios were embedded in the background to relay the commands. We had another 50 people just watering the crew, because it was 104 degrees!  It’s very difficult to film action sequences when people are so hot and can become easily dehydrated.

We used a dozen horses to take turns pulling chariots. When you consider that the wheels on the chariots are 400lbs. each and the chariots are moving at 40kmh down the hill, there’s no stopping them once they get going. We used stunt men around the horses to protect the actors and background extras from getting too close to the chariots. We tethered four chariots together which had to be done very precisely because if they crashed people would get hurt. Safety was our primary focus. That being said, we wanted the battle scenes to look bad ass: to look like people were really getting killed by spears, swords and cudgels.  Our 60 stuntmen fought aggressively with real punches and throws, because these guys can take it and know how to handle themselves.

QUESTION: What kind of camerawork did you use for this scene?

ANSWER: To get into the middle of the action, we attached a Steady Cam to an ATV and we had our stunt coordinator Cedric Proust, drive the ATV through the chaos. Our DOP, Chris LaVasseur, was tied to the back of it operating a handheld, and our Steady Cam operator was strapped to the back.  Our four camera crews worked four days to shoot that sequence, which on screen is 10 minutes. It’s not easy to get battle scenes that look big and feel aggressive.

QUESTION: What battle training did the cast receive?

ANSWER: They trained for many weeks doing cross fit, chariot driving, horse riding, sword fighting, bow and arrow shooting and spear training. Every day they came back exhausted but the next day they were ready to go out again. I give everyone tremendous credit for their hard work.

QUESTION: In another battle scene, Tut and Suhad try to break Lagus out of the Mitanni prison.  Tell us what was involved in filming that scene.

ANSWER: We did months of scouting for a place where we could set the Mitanni stronghold. We needed a setting that felt like Egypt and would be very big and very old.  When we saw Ait Benhaddou, a UNESCO World Heritage site, it was perfect. It is a 500-600 year-old walled city or “ksar” perched up on a hill, filled with ancient kasbahs made out of mud and straw. It’s situated along the former caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakech.  We decided that at the very top would be our Mitanni prison where Lagus is captive. Tut is hidden behind a cowl and he and Suhad make their way up there and  break him out … then all hell breaks loose. They then run down the hill through a labyrinth of passageways past dead bodies, guards and soldiers. Once they’re down they’re still a large desert away from Thebes. For the actors it was a very aggressive couple of days of running, jumping, fighting and hiding.  We tried to make it feel like it’s a non-stop push until they get on the chariot and get out of there.

QUESTION: The miniseries ends on a big funeral scene. We see Tut’s death mask, which is the iconic image associated with Tutankhamun. Tell us about it.


ANSWER: We set it up by having Vizier Ay and Tut looking at the lapis lazuli and gold mask that we all is associate with Tutankhamun.  Tut realizes that this is going to be placed on him when he dies in the future, he just doesn’t know when. When Tut dies, he’s put into the casket which is put into the sarcophagus and carried to a tomb. But it’s not the big tomb that we think he’s going to go into. Vizier Ay puts him into a smaller tomb of a lower nobleman in the Valley of the Kings. The great irony is that because Tut’s tomb was so small it was covered over by time and built over. It remained intact. No one plundered it and so we have this great record and trove of artifacts. Most of what the world knows about that period of Egyptian culture comes from Tut’s tomb.  By putting him into a lesser tomb, the Vizier sealed his own fate - in that no one would remember the Vizier who becomes the Pharaoh after Tut’s death and everyone now remembers Tut. 

TUT’S LIFE

Tutankhamun, popularly known as King Tut, lived a short life during the 18th Egyptian dynasty known as the New Kingdom, in 14th century BC. Much of Tut's life is shrouded in mystery and legend, but it is known that his father was the former pharaoh, Akhenaten, and his mother was one of his father's close relatives. He ascended to the throne around the age of nine, at which time he married his half-sister, Ankhesenamun. Tut and his wife never produced any viable offspring.

As a young pharaoh, Tut reigned with the help of powerful advisors, including General Horemheb and Vizier Ay, Tut's great uncle and, later, his successor to the throne. Much of his reign was dedicated to repairing the damage done by his father, whose attempted religious reforms had left Egypt in disarray. Tut reinstated the old religion and restored many of the temples dedicated to the god Amun.

TUT’S DEATH

Tut died in his late teens. His cause of death is unknown, although some researchers have speculated that Tut suffered from malaria, as well genetic disorders due to the close relation of his parents. Tut's remains show evidence of cranial damage, leading many to believe he was assassinated.

More recent research has revealed that Tut suffered a massive injury to the chest and to the leg. Incidents as diverse as a chariot accident and a hippopotamus attack have been suggested as the cause of these injuries. It remains a mystery, however, whether a fatal blow to the chest or an infection following a serious leg fracture resulted in the death of King Tut.

TUT’S LEGACY

Tut’s famed gold-and-blue death mask may be the most iconic single artifact from ancient Egypt. He has achieved his current status as the most famous pharaoh mostly due to the ubiquity of his burial mask and the pervasiveness of his catchy nickname (“King Tut”) in popular culture. Tut’s tomb was one of most well preserved of any pharaoh yet unearthed. Although Tut’s mummy remains in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, many of the glimmering gold items with which he was buried have been displayed in museums all over the world. At one time, before stricter measures had to be instituted to preserve Tut’s tomb and mummy, thousands of visitors per day entered the burial site to participate in this fascinating piece of history. 

HISTORY REVEALED: 7-MINUTE VIDEO

TUT went into production in Ouarzazate, Morocco in summer 2014.

"Every day we were faced with challenges,” says Joel Rice, executive producer and head of Muse Entertainment USA. “For weeks we had blazing sun and temperatures over 107 F. We also faced wind storms and sand storms that blew away sets. It hardly ever rains in Morocco, but when we were filming we had flooding. We also had rainstorms that damaged costumes and freshly painted buildings.”

MAKING OF: 2-MINUTE VIDEO