The first 300: Rise of an Empire trailer has just hit the web, a month after it was announced that it would be pushed back from this fall to March 7, 2014. Fans of 300 have been anxiously awaiting the film adaptation of the unreleased Xerxes written by Frank Miller, and now we get our first juicy good look at the action. You can find the trailer and 67 hi-resolution screenshots after the jump.

Since Zack Snyder is too busy materializing DC’s Cinematic Universe, 300: Rise of an Empire was helmed by director Noam Murro (Smart People), which is his second feature length film. What Murro will bring to the table is up in the air as he has very little credits to his name – not even anything remotely related to action. But with the director of photographer behind The Great Gatsby (2013), Simon Duggan, we should expect to see a decent cinematic experience much like the first film.

Rise of an Empire is a huge departure from our Spartans fighting on land in Thermopylae, with our heroes, the Athenians taking the battle into the waters of Artemisium. A new champion of Greece, Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton), looks to go toe to toe with the all mighty god king Xerxes, and one of his fiercest commanding officers Artemisia (Eva Green). Follow Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) of Sparta into battle to avenge her Spartan king, and fight for freedom.

With an all new director and cinematographer team, from what I see in the trailer, it would appear they have the visual style of 300 down. The scale is definitely bigger as I’m sure the budget for CGI water had to have cost a pretty penny, but the darker blues and the blacks make Rise of an Empire feel a little different. There isn’t much to go off of the characters as there seems to be an abundance of them, but we’ll have to wait and see whether Stapleton can muster up the charisma of Gerard Butler or not.

Here is the official plot synopsis for 300: Rise of an Empire, courtesy of Apple Trailers:

Based on Frank Miller’s latest graphic novel Xerxes and told in the breathtaking visual style of the blockbuster “300,” this new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield—on the sea—as Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war. “300: Rise of an Empire” pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), and Artemesia (Eva Green), vengeful commander of the Persian navy.

Along with Stapleton, Headey, and Green, Rise of an Empire also stars David Wenham, Jack O’Connell, Callan Mulvey, Hans Matheson, and Rodrigo Santoro returning as Xerxes

300: Rise of an Empire will be released on March 7, 2014.

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