Animal Kingdom star Sullivan Stapleton has snagged the lead role in the prequel to Helleno-erotic historical(ish) action film 300.

Replacing former lead Gerard Butler, who played Leonidas in the original film but died in appropriately heroic fashion at the end, Stapleton will play Athenian general Themistocles in 300: Battle of Artemisia.

Early speculation suggested that Australian actor Stapleton would take the place of Brazilian Rodrigo Santoro, who played evil god-emperor Xerxes back in 2007, for a parallel film which covered the same time period as 300. This idea (if it was ever more than idle gossip) was swiftly abandoned on account of being crap.

Eva Green will play the titular Artemisia whilst Noam Murro (Smart People) is set to direct. Now, who’s Sullivan Stapleton again?

Do you know? No, seriously, do you know who he is?