Netflix 'Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire': Zack Snyder moves on from being a willing victim of canon
"An original IP in this day and age for a film this size is really exciting, and for this genre, it's a rarity," actor Cleopatra Coleman said
Zack Snyder is leaving the DC universe (DCU) behind him and has taken sci-fi, or technically sci-fantasy, into his own hands with Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire on Netflix.
Where to watch Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire: Netflix Dec. 21 at 10:00 p.m. ET
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Michiel Huisman, Ed Skrein, Djimon Hounsou, Staz Nair, Doona Bae, Cleopatra Coleman, E. Duffy, Ray Fisher
Runtime: 133 minutes
As a filmmaker inspired by the world of Star Wars, specifically the ambitious scale of the cinematic experience of that franchise, it's clear that Snyder is pulling from a similar playbook for Rebel Moon, but with his own perspective.
"The thesis of the whole approach was that we would be sort of forging canon as we went," Snyder told Yahoo Canada. "It was a thing that of course was refreshing to me, because I've been a long victim of amazing canon, though willing."
"It was fun to kind of just go, what would it be like if we just did it ourselves from scratch, and that was really an amazing assignment and an amazing challenge that we set for ourselves. ... There's a really beautiful symmetry to the working out of all the characters problems, within the confines of the mythology that we created."
"An original IP in this day and age for a film this size is really exciting, and for this genre, it's a rarity," Cleopatra Coleman said in a separate interview.
What is 'Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire' about?
The first character we meet in Rebel Moon is Kora (Sofia Boutella), living in the farming moon of Veldt. Before arriving in Veldt, Kora was a fighter for the Imperium, the empire trying to control the galaxy, but she takes pleasure in this quieter life.
Until the imposing Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) arrives on Veldt, working under the tyrannical ruler Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee), demanding crops, coming to occupy the land.
That forces Kora to tap into her past as a fighter, with farmer Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), to assemble a group from around the galaxy that can help defend Veldt.
Sofia Boutella approached Kora like she has an 'addiction'
For Sofia Boutella, she equated Kora going back to combat from that stage of her life on Veldt to an "addiction."
"She decided to change [her life] completely, and not having had the choice, to be honest, and then knew she could never go back there," Boutella explained. "There's maybe a part of her that knows if she opens that door, she cannot close it. If she starts fighting, she cannot stop. If she starts eliminating people, she cannot stop."
"Maybe a part of her likes it, ... not likes it in a joyful way, but that's all she knows and all of a sudden it becomes a comfort zone, and that's what's scary to Kora. That's what she's trying to resist, as in knowing that once she goes there, there's this demon that awakens in her. That's how I saw it. ... That's how I think addiction is, that thing that if you start doing it again, it's over. And it's comforting, even though you know it's bad for you. I viewed it that way and I approached it that way, and I think it worked, because even when I saw the film, you can feel that resistance, ... but when it starts, it's over."
As the first antagonist we see in the film, Ed Skrein's Admiral Atticus Noble doesn't jump to physical violence to intimidate the farmers of Veldt, and that's something the actor really appreciated in the character.
"The way he speaks, this was what was interesting to me," Skrein said. "Of course he has this physical power with his hands and body, but he also has an army in a spaceship and guns that can cut planets in half, ... and we meet a man who has a pistol on his hip, but he uses his tongue."
"You see that opening scene, we could have come in there and just took all the grain, or come in and said, 'Alright we're taking over.' ... But he's like a thespian, the performance of it to step out and enjoy this, like a cat playing with a mouse. I know as a viewer, this is what I find interesting to watch, and of course as an actor, this is what I find fun to play. If I'm going to play an antagonist, it has to be as well served as this."
'He was an amazing quarterback for the film'
An original sci-fi story created by Snyder certainly means that he's developed an impressive amount of detail and backstory for each character.
"He was an amazing quarterback for the film and had a very clear understanding of each character, the backstory, where they come from, what they were doing, how they end up where they're at, at this point," Djimon Hounsou said. "He creates such an amazing roadmap that gives you tremendous confidence."
"We're all embarking on this story where none of us have any tangible understanding of that world, and that environment. But he takes you on that journey. ... He's in the trenches and that's beautiful to see."
But that didn't mean the actors weren't given room to bring their own interpretations of these characters into the mix.
"It was a really exciting process just to be near him and to hear everything he had created in his head, and to sort of just try and conceptualize it," E. Duffy said. "It was just a constant discovery with him."
"There is initially this apprehension that there's not going to be space or room for ourselves to discover what this character means, but ... the story resonated so much, I think with all of us, individually, there was a level of trust that was there working with him," Staz Nair explained in a separate interview.
"He also is just very gracious in that sense. He will give you all the information you ask for, and then ask you what you think. ... I changed the line here or there and he was like, cool let me ask [Deborah Snyder], Debbie agrees, cool let's move on. There's this freedom and this fluidity that was very nice. And it opened desire, I think, to allow ourselves to put ourselves into it, which again, makes it such a wonderful thing."
More specifically, Nair actually has a necklace his wife gave him when he booked Rebel Moon. The actor told Snyder about it and became a particularly prominent part of his character Tarak's costume.
Will there be extended cuts of 'Rebel Moon' movies?
While the "Snyder cut" of the filmmaker's previous films, including Zack Snyder's Justice League, have become their own phenomenons, it has been confirmed that Rebel Moon will have "R-rated expansions."
When will 'Rebel Moon — Part Two' be released?
The second Rebel Moon film is actually only a few months away.
Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver will be released on Netflix April 19, 2024.
