Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS are ahead for Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire!
We’ve known for a long time that Rebel Moon is split into two movies, so it was to be expected that the first half of Zack Snyder’s sci-fi epic, titled A Child of Fire, would end with some unresolved plot threads. Still, the movie delivered a pretty big final twist to Netflix subscribers, with Ed Skrein’s Atticus Noble being resurrected and sent out to both retrieve Sofia Boutella’s Kora and stomp out the insurgency growing against Regent Balisarius. While speaking with CinemaBlend, Rebel Moon writer Kurt Johnstad credited director Zack Snyder for this surprising ending, as well as addressed this cliffhanger with a Star Wars analogy.
In addition to his directorial duties, Zack Snyder fleshed out Rebel Moon’s script with Johnstad and Shay Hatten, and the first half of this final product came out on December 22, 25 years after Snyder and Johnstad first started talking about the idea. During my recent interview with Johnstad, I asked why it was decided to end A Child of Fire with Noble’s resurrection, noting how it also would have worked well as a post-credits reveal or even as an opener for Part Two: The Scargiver. The writer whose credits also include 300 and Atomic Blonde started off by saying:
I think that that’s just a directorial choice… An ending you’d be more familiar with would be the team riding up in the wheat fields and saying, ‘Oh, there, I’ve never had a place to call home. There it is.’ And end the film there. But I think Zack is a really provocative filmmaker, and he wants to leave the audience just feeling maybe a little bit uncomfortable. The great thing about that is I think Ed’s performance as Noble is frightening and scary. It’s nothing like the man himself, he’s such a gentle, lovely guy. So I guess that’s why they call it acting, which is great.
Had Rebel Moon been a one movie affair, then watching Kora and her remaining allies come to Veldt following the defeat of Noble and his forces would have made for a nice conclusion. But there’s still another chapter to delve into, and as Kurt Johnstad noted, Zack Snyder decided it would be better to tease audiences that the danger hasn’t passed yet. Noble is back will do whatever it takes to fulfill Balisarius’ orders, no matter who gets hurt or killed along the way.
Kurt Johnstad also told me how it was Zack Snyder who came up that final scene in Rebel Moon — Part One, but the good news is that rather than having to wait years to see how Part Two brings this story to an end, akin to the three-year period between many of the Star Wars movies, including A New Hope in 1977 and The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, the public only has to sit tight for a few months for it to hit the Netflix movie schedule. In his words:
It was fun to me. I knew Zack was doing that, he actually wrote that little button, that end scene, that closer. And when they’re filming it, I was like, ‘Ok, I see what he’s going to do.’ And the thing is, I think it’s interesting because it’s not like we’re having to wait three years or five years between, like, a Star Wars and Empire to come out. We’re going to get this movie and the satisfaction of seeing what Noble does and what our heroes do and the peril that they’re put in in the next four months. So by April, that cliffhanger’s going to pay off, which I think is a really interesting fun thing to play with.
While there were a few deaths that stuck during A Child of Fire, the majority of the Rebel Moon cast will be back for The Scargiver. The Rebel Moon Part Two trailer teased the coming conflict between the protagonists and Noble’s forces, and in four months time, we’ll know what fate awaits Kora, Noble and the rest of the survivors. But The Scargiver won’t be our last time visiting the Rebel Moon universe, as there’s a narrative podcast and animated series in development, as well as a four-issue comic book series about Devra and Darrian Bloodaxe being published in 2024.
Don’t forget to read CinemaBlend’s review of Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire and keep checking back with us for both more coverage on this movie and updates concerning Part Two: The Scargiver. If you’re wondering what non-Netflix movies await next year, peruse our 2024 release schedule.
