Right on the heels of “Man of Steel’s” release, the trailer for director Zach Snyder’s new movie has been released. “300: Rise of an Empire” is set to premiere on July 3 2014. Is this a sequel to 300? No! THIS. IS. SPARTA. Apologies, we couldn’t help ourselves. Anyway, this really won’t be a sequel. MTV News quotes Noam Murro – the film’s director, who is a newcomer to the franchise - as saying that this film takes place before, during and after the events of the last one – it just has a much broader scope.

 

"The idea of this movie was always that it takes place at about the same time of the first one," he said. "It's as if you zoomed out and saw a bigger time frame and told a bigger story of what happened in '300.' The first movie speaks to the detail of this sequel."

The trailer for Rise of an Empire has just been released and on first glance, it looks just as blood-drenched and spectacular as the first one. Besides Murro, there are some other newcomers as well – former Bond girl Eva Green joins the cast as Artemisia I of Caria, along with new protagonist Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton.) There will be some familiar faces as well though, with Rodrigo Santoro returning as Xerxes and Game of Thrones star Lena Headey reprising her role as Queen Gorgo. The trailer opens ominously with her monologue.

“It begins as whisper,” she says. “A promise. The lightest of breezes dances above the death cries of 300 men. That breeze became a wind. A wind, my brothers, of sacrifice. A wind of freedom. A wind of justice. A wind of vengeance.”

So it looks like that’s our 2014 To Watch list sorted then.

Zack Snyder, Man of Steel Premiere
It's safe to say Snyder is on a roll lately.

Rodrigo Santoro, The Last Stand Premiere
Rodrigo Santoro returns as well.