Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder may never be able to tackle a franchise as fragile as Star Wars, but Netflix is giving him a chance to start from ground zero with his Rebel Moon movies. The first film in the series is set to premiere this December, and we have a new official trailer thanks to Netflix’s Geeked Week 2023.
Watch this:
The official description reads:
From Zack Snyder, the filmmaker behind 300, Man of Steel, and Army of the Dead, comes REBEL MOON, a 2-part movie event decades in the making.
After crash landing on a moon in the furthest reaches of the universe, Kora (Sofia Boutella), a stranger with a mysterious past, begins a new life among a peaceful settlement of farmers. But she soon becomes their only hope for survival when the tyrannical Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee) and his cruel emissary, Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein), discover the farmers have unwittingly sold their crops to the Bloodaxes (Cleopatra Coleman and Ray Fisher) — leaders of a fierce group of insurgents hunted by the Motherworld.
Tasked with finding fighters who would risk their lives to defend the people of Veldt, Kora and Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), a tenderhearted farmer naive in the realities of war, journey to different worlds in search of the Bloodaxes, and assemble a small band of warriors who share a common need for redemption along the way: Kai (Charlie Hunnam), a pilot and gun for hire; General Titus (Djimon Hounsou), a legendary commander; Nemesis (Doona Bae), a master swordswoman; Tarak (Staz Nair), a captive with a regal past; and Milius (E. Duffy), a resistance fighter. Back on Veldt, Jimmy (voiced by Anthony Hopkins), an ancient mechanized protector hiding in the wings, awakens with a new purpose. But the newly formed revolutionaries must learn to trust each other and fight as one before the armies of the Motherworld come to destroy them all.
From the premise alone, you can already see all the comparisons to Star Wars, from the evil fascist empire to the hero with simple roots as a farmer. I guess the only difference in Rebel Moon is that there isn’t any mystical “Force” in the story, but it’s too early to tell.
The gathering of the warriors is also different to the Star Wars genre in that it’s more inspired by Seven Samurai, but even Star Wars has paid their homage to that film with an episode of The Mandalorian; you can even say that Rogue One was also another ‘gathering of heroes’ film.
#RestoreTheSnyderVerse may never happen ever, but it’s great to see this modern auteur just working on his own original projects. Personally, I think he still has to brush up on his narrative skills in this trailer for Rebel Moon, but visually, he’s still a master that always delivers some memorable setpieces.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire premieres on Netflix this coming Dec. 22.
