This marked the final Italian sword and sandal/mythological muscleman movie to be made by Steve Reeves. He would make several "Sandokan" movies and a spaghetti western before retiring from the screen.
In the javelin contest, the ship's captain says that it would take Hercules to remove the javelins from the ship's mast.Steve Reeves had become a worldwide sensation playing Hercules in two movies which started the craze for these Italian sword and sandal epics.
Unlike most of the Italian sword-and-sandal films of the 1960s which were shot at Cinecitta Studios in Rome, this film was shot mostly on location in Egypt.
This film was shot using American Bausch and Lomb CinemaScope lenses instead of the various European widescreen systems.
For the U.S. release through M.G.M., the film was re-titled "The Slave." The promotional material clearly mentioned "Steve Reeves is The Son of Spartacus."