HBO Rome 2 Octavian actor switch. Why?

[Voadam]

So I'm watching HBO's Rome through netflix and enjoying most of it immensley (Not the brain surgery or incest though). I got through disc 2 in the second season and the actor for Octavian has changed.

Octavian in the first season was one of my favorite characters and turned a personage from history who I did not care for into someone I was cheering for in the series.

Now with a new actor it is not the same for me. Its almost like an excellent player left a game and either the DM is now running the character or got a new player to take over and the job is being done OK but not with the really cool fun aspects that were there before.

Anyone know the story of why they switched actors? Did something happen to the young actor? Did he have alternate commitments and could not continue in the series?

 

[Enforcer]

Because Season 2 took place a couple years after Season 1? I'm pretty sure that's all there was to it.

 

[Mark]

I was never able to find adequate info on that. He was meant to age but I somewhat agree that a switch could have been made more effectively if they had done so when he comes back from his studies. While they were both good actors, I also thought that there was not enough of the sense that they were the same person but grown up.

 

[Voadam]

The same actor from season 1 is there in the first couple of episodes in season 2. And he had grown noticeably in the break between season 1 and 2. Octavian's sister is still young and played by the same actress after Octavian "grows up" and Vorenus' children are still young and played by the same actors. It did not feel like a smooth way of saying time has passed from Octavian leaving Rome and the end of the first war between Antony and Octavian. It didn't feel necessary or useful to the story and seemed jarring to to me. It much more had the feel of the company saying to the actor "You're out" or the actor saying to the company "I'm out".

 

[hexgrid]

Season 2 spans 13 years. It would have been really weird having the same kid playing Octavian by the end.

(Not that any of the other characters age appropriately, of course.)

 

[Grymar]

Beyond the time span of season 2, you also have the actor in season two doing some more...grown up things that perhaps they didn't want a 14 year old boy doing?

I agree that it was jarring and I preferred the younger actor, but I can understand why it was done. If it helps, I quickly got used to it.

 

[Snottiesthorse]

because of the kinky sex scene in season 2 where they slap each other, the original actor was under 18

 

[MARCVS AVRELIVS]

I think another aspect is that originally, they were intending to have a Season 3 ... but when they realized that wasn't going to happen, they had to accelerate plans and do the time skip. I suspect the transition would have happened between Season 2 and 3, had they been able to stretch Season 2 out longer to show more of the triumvirate and tensions.

As well, Gaius Octavius was like 19 when Caesar was killed, about 21 when the Battle of Phillipi was fought and around 30 or so for the Battle of Actium. Max Pirkis could likely handle the "when Caesar was killed" part (and did), but once we hop to Phillipi and Actium, they likely felt an older actor was needed.