The first we heard of Zack Snyder’s upcoming space epic, Rebel Moon, it was as a Seven Samurai-inspired Star Wars pitch to Lucasfilm. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, that’s as far as it got with the studio, and Snyder was forced to shop it around elsewhere. Fortunately, he’s also got quite a good relationship with the folks at Netflix.
But why didn’t Rebel Moon work at Lucasfilm? Speaking with Empire Magazine, the Justice League filmmaker says the timing was wrong, coming soon after Disney acquired Lucasfilm, and they were anxious about his approach which would’ve been a departure from other Star Wars movies…
“The sale [of Lucasfilm to Disney] had just happened,” Snyder said. “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.”
“I knew it was a big ask, to be honest,” he added. “But the deeper I got into it, I realized it was probably never going to be what I wanted.”
Snyder already has an Army of the Dead franchise at Netflix, and if things work out Rebel Moon will be the launch of another.
Rebel Moon hits Netflix on December 22nd as the first of two all-ages chapters. The R-rated versions will be released at a later date.
Here’s a new look at Ray Fisher as the warrior Darrian Bloodaxe.
EXCLUSIVE ?
Say hello to Darrian Bloodaxe, Ray Fisher's #RebelMoon character, who has a "massive" four-foot gun: "It’s almost as big as me," Fisher tells Empire.
READ MORE: https://t.co/gXLTDupOIY pic.twitter.com/AZIY19n36d
— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) July 3, 2023
