Zack Snyder, the director of 300, the Watchmen film and of course Zack Snyder’s Justice League, tells Vanity Fair that his upcoming sci-fi epic Rebel Moon could very well have been a Star Wars film.
“I was in postproduction on Man of Steel,” Snyder says in the new issue’s deep dive into his epic. “I had heard there were rumblings about possibly doing another three [Star Wars] movies at some point. My take was that, if you just let me have the IP, I’ll make this cool movie, and I won’t get in the way of anything that you guys are doing.”
Ultimately, it didn’t work out, but Disney-owned Lucasfilm’s loss was Netflix’s gain: His original 172-page script will be broken into two sprawling Netflix movies about inhabitants of a planet in the middle of nowhere that rise up against a galaxy-wide military empire.
The films star Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy and Pacific Rim; Sofia Boutella from Star Trek: Beyond; Djimon Hounsou from Gladiator and Guardians of the Galaxy; and Ed Skrein from Deadpool. An ancient robot named Jimmy will be played by Snyder’s Sucker Punch star Jena Malone, but voiced by Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins.
There’s also a ton of world-building, with mechanized knights; massive, planet-leveling battleships; and lots of in-universe lore.
Snyder understands the comparisons to that galaxy far, far away, yet allows, “I do believe that our thing is really an entirely different experience.”
His wife and longtime producing partner Deborah Snyder offers, “It has a bit of Star Wars … It’s a little bit like Lord of the Rings, a little bit Game of Thrones with the palace intrigue,” she says. “It has a bit of everything.”
Part one of Rebel Moon drops on Netflix December 22.
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