The first official images from 300: Rise of an Empire, the long awaited sequel (sort of—more on that later) to Zack Snyder‘s 2006 adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel 300, have been released online.

One of the images shows some muscular gentlemen (what did you expect?) on a ship during a sea battle, and the other shows star Sullivan Stapleton (Gangster Squad, The Hunter), who’s playing the lead character Themistokles.

Click on over to the other side now to check out the first images from 300: Rise of an Empire.

We’ve been hearing about a 300 prequel/sequel/spinoff for a while now, but we knew it would be a long while before we actually saw it because creator Frank Miller still had to work on the graphic novel for which the movie would be based. In fact, it was almost one year ago that Zack Snyder confirmed that he was working on the script for the prequel, and we haven’t heard much of anything major since then.

At that time it was unclear whether or not Snyder would return to direct the movie, which is now titled 300: Battle of Artemisia (previously titled Xerxes, which is the name of Miller’s graphic novel), though it sounded like he very much wanted to, saying “It’s really going to depend on what the studio wants to do…I don’t have a directing deal in place but we are writing it, so call it intent. If there was a crime they could probably convict me.” But we now know that what the studio (Warner Brothers) wanted, was for Snyder to take on their reboot of Superman, titled Man of Steel, which will star Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, and Michael Shannon, to name a few.

As far as a prequel/sequel to Zack Snyder‘s stylistic epic 300 goes, we’ve3 always known that he was up for doing it and it all rested in what graphic novel creator Frank Miller came up with first. Well, Miller has completed his work on the upcoming Dark Horse title and it must be pretty gosh-darn great.

Speaking to the LA Times, Snyder confirmed “We closed the writing deal on Xerxes. We started writing about a week ago, so we’re doing it. It’s happening.” But while the writing deal is done and work has begun on the script, the movie AND Snyder as a director isn’t yet a guarantee…though he clearly wants it to be. The director goes on to say “It’s really going to depend on what the studio wants to do and what we do when we finish; I don’t have a directing deal in place but we are writing it, so call it intent. If there was a crime they could probably convict me.”