Everything we know about Netflix's 'Rebel Moon'
Zack Snyder's next movie, "Rebel Moon," will release on Netflix on December 22, 2023.
Following a group of rebels rising up against a corrupt government, a sequel will be released on April 19, 2024.
The cast includes Charlie Hunnam, Anthony Hopkins, and Djimon Hounsou.
Zack Snyder's next big movie will be a sci-fi epic for Netflix called "Rebel Moon."
Set to be released in two parts, the first chapter will be released on the streaming service in December.
Earlier this month, Insider attended a press event in Los Angeles with the director, his longtime producer and wife Deborah Snyder, and producers Wesley Coller and Eric Newman to preview a teaser trailer and learn more about the project.
Here's everything we know so far about "Rebel Moon."
What is 'Rebel Moon' about?
Inspired by Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai," "Star Wars," and "Excalibur," the film follows a group of warrior rebels who rise up to fight back against the Mother World, a corrupt government and its army, the Imperium, who assassinated the world's king, queen, and daughter.
Based on an idea he's had for decades, Snyder told Insider he's been working on the "Rebel Moon" script for the past three to four years since wrapping work on his zombie film "Army of the Dead" at Netflix.
The movie will be released in two parts in December 2023 and April 2024
"Rebel Moon" will be released in two chapters.
The first film, "Rebel Moon: Part One — A Child of Fire" will be released on Netflix on December 22, 2023. The second chapter, "Rebel Moon: Part Two — The Scargiver," will stream on Netflix four months later on April 19, 2024. The individual titles come from the script.
Deborah said it was essential for the movies to be released close together. They didn't want fans to wait a year or two for the sequel. Zack said "Rebel Moon" is split into two parts so they could have enough time to fully explain why this group is gathering to fight.
Its history has connections to 'Star Wars'
There was a time when a version of "Rebel Moon" could've been a "Star Wars" movie.
Zack recounted to Insider and a small group of press how he met with Lucasfilm before Disney purchased it in 2012. He wanted to work on a project set five years before 1977's "A New Hope" that wasn't connected to the Skywalker Saga.
After Disney's purchase, Zack said he met with them again, but it didn't go anywhere. He said they wanted the director to start to insert certain elements into the film. He added that the story was liberated by not being a part of the "Star Wars" universe.
Since then, Zack said the story has undergone many iterations with consideration at one point to develop "Rebel Moon" into a TV series.
When Insider asked if Lucasfilm had any reaction to him working on "Rebel Moon" at Netflix, he said no because they were never far enough into development on anything.
Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, and Anthony Hopkins lead the cast
Boutella plays the protagonist, Kora, a young woman who's welcomed into a community on the peaceful planet of Veldt despite having a mysterious past with corrupt government forces.
"She has quite a complicated and dark backstory," Deborah said of the character who is trying to "make amends for things that she has done in her past.
She added that Kora is "on this redemptive journey. Although, I think she doesn't feel like she's even worthy of redemption."
When Kora and the community decide to fight back against the Imperium, she enlists a group of warriors which includes Charlie Hunnam as Kai, Djimon Hounsou as General Titus, Doona Bae as Nemesis, Staz Nair as Tarak, and Michiel Huisman as Gunnar. Empire also reported Ray Fisher ("Zack Snyder's Justice League") has a role as Darrian Bloodaxe.
Zack also said frequent collaborator Jena Malone has a cameo, voicing a spider.
Ed Skrein, meanwhile, plays one of their foes, Admiral Noble.
Hopkins voices a powerful 500-year-old android, Jimmy, who has lost his way after the assassination of the royal family he served. Zack said Hopkins is one of a small group of "Jimmys" who he described as "quest knights" who acted as "the muscle of the realm."
With the royal family gone, Zack said his story will explore "the why of his existence."
"They've been turned sort of into this soldier class. At first, they were designed to do another purpose that was really kind of more noble. They just found themselves over time sort of compromising," he said. "They kind of lose their will to fight and they become sort of like glorified forklifts."
"They won't fight. They don't know morally what to do." Zack added, hinting Hopkins' Jimmy will be back in action. "If he was called upon to fight, it would not be good for anybody."
Boutella performed all her stunts but one
Deborah explained how they tested five people for the part of Kora, but Boutella, who has a dance background, could pull off both her acting and stunt scenes.
"We only doubled her once in the whole film," Zack said, noting they didn't want to throw the actor off the side of a platform. "But she did all the fighting."
7 planets will be seen in the first film
Zack and Coller counted off a total of seven planets that will be explored in the first movie.
In addition to Veldt, Nemesis' home planet of Daggus has been ruined by a mining operation that's been going on there." Zack teased "a big battle" will eventually take place on Veldt.
They created 4 languages with a linguist
"We created four languages that we had a linguist work on," Deborah said, adding that one is the Mother World language, which you can see embedded in some of the costumes.
Each chapter of 'Rebel Moon' will have a director's cut
"When I draw the scenes or when I'm writing the script, I always end up with a lot of stuff that I feel really tells this sort of a deeper dive story," Zack said of going down rabbit holes with characters.
He said a director's cut was suggested as "part of the plan" from the initial conversation he had with Netflix about "Rebel Moon," making it easier for him to edit a PG-13-rated version for the streamer when he knew anything he deleted could be held for a director's cut. Both movies will receive a longer edit, which should add about 30 minutes of extra footage to each movie.
Snyder told press the director's cuts will be bloodier. Snyder didn't share a release date for either director's cut, but said the first one won't be simultaneously released with "Part One" on December 22.
Read the original article on Insider