On February 11th, 2011 a film called The Eagle will premiere in movie theaters. The film stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell. Jamie Bell will play the slave of Channing Tatum, who is a Roman officer trying to find out about his father’s disappearance in the Legio Nona Hispana or the Ninth Spanish Legion. Here’s a preview of the film:

For me personally, I just can’t imagine Channing Tatum as a Roman officer. He was previously in movies like Step Up and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. However, I’ll give this movie a chance. Who knows, maybe this movie will be good after all.

Anyway, the part about the movie dealing with the Ninth Spanish Legion is based on fact. The Ninth Spanish Legion really existed and suddenly disappeared in Britain around AD 117. There are several theories as to how or why they disappeared. One theory postulates that the Legion never really disappeared. Supporters of this theory argue that the names of several officers of the Ninth Legion were recorded in military records after AD 117, and that the Legion might have been transferred to other regions. However, this finding is not firm evidence that the Legion didn’t disappear. Assuming that the Legion did disappear, several of the officers of the Ninth Legion may have survived some catastrophic military defeat at the hands of the Britons. This doesn’t mean that the Legion itself survived. If you watched the 2010 movie Centurion, at least one of the officers survives and tells the tale of what happened to the Ninth Legion. As of yet, we don’t have enough evidence to make a case as to whether the Legion really did disappear, much less how they disappeared, but the legend of the Ninth Legion continues to stir our imagination even to this day.