It’s been two years since Zack Snyder delivered Army of the Dead, his first Netflix movie, to the public, and while he was involved with the making of the zombie heist picture’s prequel, Army of Thieves, the end of 2023 will see his next directorial effort for the streamer released. Rebel Moon is the first of a multi-chaptered space opera saga that Snyder has lined up for Netflix subscribers, but originally the filmmaker intended for this story to be a Star Wars movie. Now the filmmaker has explained why Rebel Moon transitioned from a galaxy far, far away into its own universe.
When Snyder pitched his Star Wars idea to Lucasfilm, he was in postproduction on Man of Steel, and Disney had recently purchased the production company from George Lucas for a little over $4 billion. Though Snyder’s Star Wars movie was inspired by a classic film that inspired Lucas’ work on 1977’s Star Wars, a.k.a. A New Hope, it soon became clear what the man who helmed the first DCEU movie had thought up would be too adult for this particular franchise. As Snyder recalled to Empire:
It was Seven Samurai in space. And a Star Wars movie was my original concept for it. … The sale [of Lucasfilm to Disney] had just happened. There was that window where, you know, who knows what’s possible? I was like, ‘I don’t want any of your characters. I don’t want to do anything with any known characters, I just want to do my own thing on the side.’ And originally I was like, ‘It should be rated R!’ That was almost a non-starter.
Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm came seven years after the release of Revenge of the Sith, the conclusion of the Prequel Trilogy and last live-action Star Wars movie at the time (the animated The Clone Wars, which launched the same-named TV series, was released in summer 2008). The Mouse House didn’t waste any time churning out new Star Wars theatrical offerings, with The Force Awakens kicking off this new era in 2015. However, rather than loop in familiar characters from the Skywalker Saga, Snyder wanted to operate in his own separate corner of this universe with all fresh faces. That, plus wanting to take things in an R-rated direction, was enough to put the kibosh on this being a Star Wars story.
More than a decade later, Rebel Moon has been re-envisioned as a fully original sci-fi movie, and for Snyder, that’s for the better, as he knows that if it’d ended up being a Star Wars project, it wouldn’t have measured up to what he pictured in his head. As he put it:
I knew it was a big ask, to be honest. But the deeper I got into it, I realised it was probably never going to be what I wanted.
Taking place in a universe controlled by the corrupt government of Mother World, Rebel Moon follows Sofia Boutella’s Kora, a former member of the Imperium, Mother World’s army led by Fra Free’s Regent Balisarius, who rallies warriors to help her protect the moon of Veldt from these malevolent forces. Rebel Moon’s large cast also includes Charlie Hunnam, Ray Fisher, Dijon Hounsou, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Skrein, Jena Malone, Doona Bae and Cleopatra Coleman, among others. In addition to directing, Zack Snyder co-wrote the screenplay with Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten.
Rebel Moon comes out on December 20, so for now, look through the best movies on Netflix available to stream now. For those of you wondering what Star Wars content is on the horizon, that information is available in our guide of upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.
