Here’s your first look at Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje in Paul W.S. Anderson’s actioner Pompeii.

Agbaje is in a cast that also includes Kit Harington, Kiefer Sutherland and Emily Browning, in a tale written by Michael Robert Johnson, which is set in the days leading up to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79, and tells the tale of an enslaved gladiator (played by Harington) who faces the tyrant (Sutherland) who, years before, murdered his family, and now threatens to steal his lover, Flavia (Browning). 

It’s not quite the synopsis for Gladiator, the Ridley Scott epic, but one can’t help but notice similarities. 

Akinnuoye-Agbaje will play another enslaved gladiator named Atticus, who becomes friends with Harington’s character. Or, essentially, the character Djimon Hounsou played (Juba) alongside Russell Crowe in Gladiator.

But from the looks of these images, it looks like Agbaje’s role could be a meaty one.

Jessica Lucas is also amongst the film’s cast members, playing Ariadne, the slave/confidante to Emily Browning’s Flavia in Pompeii. However, no images of her have surfaced just yet.

Constantin Film is backing the movie with Lionsgate handling distribution in the USA, starting on February 21.

Later on this year, catch Agbaje in Sony Pictures’ Annie, a reimagining of the Broadway musical, which stars Quvenzhané Wallis as the title character.