If you want to see Andy Whitfield as Starz' gladiator Spartacus, you'd better buy this week's new Season 1 DVD/Blu-ray of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

Whitfield won't be back in the role anytime soon, if ever. Starz announced late Friday that Whitfield's cancer, thought to be in remission as he prepared to resume the role next year, now requires "aggressive" treatment, and he won't return for Season 2 as had been planned.

After the Australian actor was diagnosed last March with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Starz worked around him by creating a prequel miniseries to air between Spartacus Seasons 1 and 2. That production, focused on the gladiator stable owners played by Lucy Lawless and John Hannah, is set to air on Starz in January 2011.

The series' delayed second season was being readied to include Whitfield, and he appeared at July's Comic-Con to emphasize his enthusiasm for returning.

Here's Starz' press release.