Warning: SPOILERS for Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire are ahead!
Director Zack Snyder put actor Ray Fisher on the map when he cast him to play Victor Stone, a.k.a. Cyborg, in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. While both men ended up leaving the DC Extended Universe under less-than-ideal circumstances, they recently got to team back up on Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire, which is now available for Netflix subscribers to stream.
In sharp contrast to Justice League though, Fisher’s Rebel Moon character Darrian Bloodaxe was ditched pretty quickly, only racking up somewhere between 5-10 minutes of screen time total before meeting his demise. However, it does look like we’ll see a little bit more from the character in Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver, which arrives in a few months time on the Netflix movie and TV schedule. That begs the question, will he play an important role in the second half of this sci-fi epic? But before we get into that, let’s get into where we left off with Darrian in A Child of Fire.
What Happened To Darrian Bloodaxe in Rebel Moon Part One
Although Darrian and his sister Devra are repeatedly mentioned in Rebel Moon Part One as the leaders of the insurgency against Regen Balisarius’ Imperium, we don’t meet them until well past the movie’s halfway mark, and they don’t stay together for long. While Devra believes Kora’s mission to protect the inhabitants of Veldt from Admiral Atticus Noble is a fool’s errand, Darrian considers it worth the effort. So he and some of the rebels join the main group of heroes, while Devra and her remaining troops find a new place to lay low.
That one decision proved to be Darrian’s undoing, as he, Kora and her other allies are betrayed soon after by the criminal Kai, who forces them into a trap that has Noble awaiting on the other side. While Gunnar courageously freeing Kora allowed the protagonists to fight back against their captors, it was Darrian Bloodaxe sacrificing his life to bring down Noble’s ship that allowed the survivors to flee the planet. Rebel Moon co-writer Kurt Johnstad told CinemaBlend that he was “heartbroken” to deliver that tragic twist to Ray Fisher’s character, but said it had to happen to amplify the arcs of other characters, like Devra and Millius.
How Will Darrian Bloodaxe Fit Into Rebel Moon Part Two?
So Darrian Bloodaxe is dead, and that’s the end of that, right? Evidently not. There’s a shot of the character in the Rebel Moon Part Two trailer on a battlefield, though there’s no context for what’s going on. It’s also possible that this shot won’t end up in what’s considered Part Two’s “theatrical” cut and will instead be saved for the director’s cut, just like Part One is getting soon. But for the sake argument, let’s just assume that shot remains intact for what people will see in a few months.
The most logical explanation is that this is simply a flashback showing an earlier conflict in Darrian’s life. As mentioned, his death is meant to play into Devra’s storyline, so we may see her recalling one of the many times she fought alongside her brother. It would a fitting way to flesh out their backstory and perhaps entice some viewers to read the Rebel Moon: House of the Bloodaxe comic book series. If that’s the case though, it stands to reason he also won’t have much screen time in this movie either.
However, Rebel Moon Part One’s cliffhanger ending delivered one hell of a twist through Atticus Noble being brought back to life by Motherworld forces after he was killed by Kora. Now, it stands to reason that not just anyone in this galaxy can access this miraculous technology, but now there’s at least a chance that Darrian’s body might be recovered and also resurrected. I’ll also entertain the notion that this is a clone of Darrian rather than the original man... a little bit. If it ends up being either of these two unlikelier options, then we might have a case for Darrian playing a bigger role in The Scargiver.
The good news is we won’t have to wait that long for this mystery to be solved, as Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver will hit Netflix on April 12. Before then, though, expect Part One’s director’s cut to be released, with its additional content including a lot more of Anthony Hopkins’ Jimmy.
