REBEL MOON (2023) | Why Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon Didn’t Become A Star Wars Movie: ‘I Knew It Was A Big Ask’

A long time ago, Zack Snyder might have joined the galaxy far, far away. As the director embarked on his tumultuous journey with DC, another possible landmark saga was calling his name – and while it never came to fruition, his idea for a Star Wars movie eventually became his upcoming Rebel Moon, an original, multi-part sci-fi epic. If it’s evolved in the intervening years since Snyder first pitched it to Lucasfilm while in post-production on Man Of Steel, the initial idea remains the same. “It was Seven Samurai in space,” he tells Empire in our world-exclusive Rebel Moon cover story. “And a Star Wars movie was my original concept for it.”

While Snyder’s conception of a Star Wars film overtly homaging the works that inspired George Lucas was a compelling concept (“I knew that the origins for George were a lot of those Kurosawa films,” says the director), there were many reasons why Rebel Moon never panned out as part of cinema’s most famous space-opera. “The sale [of Lucasfilm to Disney] had just happened,” says Snyder. “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.”

A decade later, Snyder has developed his original tale, and is getting to make it exactly how he sees it. “I knew it was a big ask, to be honest,” he says of making the film within the Star Wars galaxy. “But the deeper I got into it, I realised it was probably never going to be what I wanted.” Instead, he’s conjuring up his own universe across multiple movies – which, after initially releasing on Netflix in family-friendly cuts, will get harder-edged R-leaning versions too. Talk about a happy ending.

REBEL MOON (2023) | Ray Fisher Has A ‘Massive’ Four-Foot Gun In Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon: ‘It’s Almost As Big As Me’

This is how it works: if you’re in a massive-scale action movie, playing a character with a name as ridiculously amped-up as ‘Darrian Bloodaxe’, you have to have the hardware to back it up. That’s exactly the position that Ray Fisher finds himself in when it comes to Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – after playing Cyborg for the director in Justice League (and afforded far more depth and screen-time in the Snyder Cut), he’s re-teaming with the director for his epic new sci-fi blowout. Yes, his character is named Darrian Bloodaxe. And yes, he has a ridiculously gigantic gun. “It’s massive,” laughs Fisher in Empire’s world-exclusive Rebel Moon cover feature. “It’s four feet. It’s almost as big as me.”

As his name suggests, Bloodaxe is not to be messed with – which is handy, since the people of peaceful planet Veldt are amassing a small force of formidable warriors to try and push back against the demands of the evil Imperium. (Yes, the film was heavily inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.) With his burly exterior, his experience as a rebel leader, and his big, bold weaponry, Bloodaxe is exactly the kind of guy you’d want on your side. In bringing him to life, Fisher looked to the same sources as his director. “I pulled from the Seven Samurai of it all,” he tells Empire. “Certain postures I take with my weapon, some of them I modeled after Toshirô Mifune, who carries that katana in a very specific way over his shoulder. Sometimes what I would do, before a take would start, is whisper to myself, ‘Mifune.’”

If Kurosawa’s samurai had weaponry like Darrian Bloodaxe? Well, they probably wouldn’t have needed seven of them. Just saying.

REBEL MOON (2023) | Zack Snyder Has Endless Movie And TV Plans For Rebel Moon: ‘We Can’t Really Hit The Bottom’

Zack Snyder has always thought big – and his original sci-fi saga will be no different. The director who curated his own corner of DC, who sent the heroes of Sucker Punch through multiple distinctive realities, and who saw a universe of stories that could emanate from his zombie tale Army Of The Dead, has a knack for creating expansive worlds that could pivot in all kinds of directions – and Rebel Moon is packed with potential expansions. The film originally began life as a Star Wars pitch; then it was picked up by Netflix where it became two movies, rather than compromising on a single three-hour flick; those films will now arrive in two forms, with additional harder-edged cuts to follow initial family-friendly versions. And that’s only the beginning.

As Snyder tells Empire, he knows exactly where Rebel Moon could go, with plans that extend far beyond these two movies. “When I pitched it to Netflix, the scale was a thing they wanted,” says Snyder. “They were like, ‘Well, how big could it be? How many movies?’ That made me go, ‘Okay, if we really do this, we can sink our teeth pretty deep into this. We can’t really hit the bottom.’”

He’s not kidding. The writer-director penned a 450-page Rebel Moon ‘bible’, detailing all kinds of lore and backstories pertaining to the evil Imperium. He has an expansive timeline that extends long before and after the two current films. (“This is the small board,” Snyder laughs of the version he shows Empire in his Pasadena offices. “The big board is over at my office on the hill. It’s three times the size of this.”) And all being well, much of it could end up on the screen – plans have been mooted for a TV series which would explore the history of Fra Fee’s Balisarius, the saga’s real Big Bad. And in a proposed third film, audiences will finally get to visit… well, the rebel moon. “The Rebel Moon is not the moon that they’re on,” Snyder clarifies. “The title was conceptual, but there’s a planet named Vanna, and Vanna is the rebel moon. It’s not even in one shot of this movie!”

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, there’s just the small matter of creating a massive, two-part original science-fiction epic, corralling a vast array of mercenary heroes, hissable baddies, unusual aliens, and a mysterious robot, set across multiple planets, spaceships, moons, and more. Or, as Zack Snyder calls it, the basics.

HELLO, YES, PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY MY FRIEND WHO STILL USES WINDOWS 7 HAS NOT ONE DESKTOP.INI FILES

BUT TWO?

HIS DESKTOP IS HORRIFIC AS IT IS BUT HOW.