Hollywood star unrecognisable as King Herod in Massacre of the Innocents trailer | Films | Entertainment

The age of the Biblical epic is making a comeback as another has been announced following Netflix’s Mary last year.

Originally titled Bethlehem, Zero AD is set to adapt the Massacre of the Innocents, when the tyrannical King Herod ordered the execution of all male babies under two in the city’s vicinity

This was to ensure that the newborn Jewish Messiah, who the Magi had told the monarch about, didn’t grow up to challenge his rule.

Nevertheless, according to the Gospels, Mary and Joseph were warned by an angel to flee to Egypt.

Zero AD stars Sam Worthington as a soldier ordered to carry out the infanticide alongside Ben Mendelsohn in a role that appears to be the Devil.

Meanwhile, Deva Cassel, the daughter of Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci, portrays the Virgin Mary. But the most eye-catching moment of the stylistic trailer had to be the Hollywood star in heavy prosthetics as King Herod himself. It turns out that this is Jim Caviezel, the Jesus star of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and the upcoming The Resurrection of the Christ, which shoots in Italy this August. Jim is joined once again by director Alejandro Gómez Monteverde after the pair collaborated on the sleeper hit Sound of Freedom.

The film’s official synopsis reads: “Before kings and empires feared him, a tyrant sought to erase him. A newborn child ignites a prophetic war. A ruthless prince seeks to crush the prophecy that threatens his father’s rule. And an unlikely mother is forced into the center of a battle between power and destiny. This is the untold origin of a revolution—where faith is tested, courage is forged, and the forces of darkness fight to extinguish the light.”

Zero AD hit cinemas on December 19, 2025