'300' Sequel Casts Jamie Blackley In Lead Role

Not every Frank Miller-related sequel must move forward so slowly: "300: Battle of Artemisia" has just hired one of its co-leads in Jamie Blackley, who will star alongside Sullivan Stapleton.

"Blackley will play Calisto, a teen whose desire to become the heroic man/soldier his father was leads the 16-year-old to become a leader of a small band of soldiers," reports Deadline.

Previously, Blackley has shown up in shows like "Misfits," and he just wrapped up parts in upcoming movies like "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "uwantme2killhim?," the Bryan Singer project about an Internet relationship gone bad. But this, by far, should be his biggest role to date -- he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page! That will change, as will his bank statement, assuming that this sequel doesn't fizzle out.

The CW route is never a bad way to go when sprucing up a property for the younger crowd (well, sometimes it is), but hopefully Blackley will be convincing as a rugged Spartan badass. We presume he'll have some interaction with Stapleton, recently cast as the Greek warlord Themistocles. He'll be all like, "Dude, let me fight," and Themistocles will be all like, "Dude, you're way too young" and then they'll bicker and banter until everyone gets their share of fighting. It's going to be great.

Directed by Noam Murro, "Battle of Artemisia" seems to be going the way of its predecessor: smaller actors rather than established stars, because the action and blood and sex will sell everything that a pretty face can't. When your pretty faces are Eva Green and a handful of chiseled Brits, you can't go wrong. The film's casting is still ongoing, so we're quite a bit away from any type of production news or firm release date.

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