Little by little, we are learning more about the vast universe Zack Snyder is inventing for his two-part sci-fi saga Rebel Moon. After visiting the film’s set on the grounds of the Netflix complex, I was able to report back about the key characters introduced in part one of the story, Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire. And we have been told that the second part of this sprawling epic, Rebel Moon: The Scargiver, will be available to those with a Netflix subscription (and hopefully in theaters) on April 19, 2024. As part of my tour of the Rebel Moon set, I learned great details about the various planets Snyder has created, the vile Imperium (which is basically like The Empire from Star Wars), and the weapons that are employed by both good and evil forces.
When talking about the weapons that are being created for Rebel Moon, Zack Snyder and his crew kept discussing a molten core that powers the guns and swords we see in the movie’s trailer. They aren’t bullets. They’re far more dangerous. But when I asked Snyder to clarify the origin of the weapons and their use of lava, he explained to CinemaBlend:
Okay, well it's not really lava. It’s the way I describe it. So don't get too hung up on lava (laugh). Everybody loves lava and that is true. But it's more just like a visual, whenever I try and describe it. Also, I say like, you know when metal drips out of a foundry? That's what the bullets are like. They're some sort of liquid plasma metal. So if I fired it, it would splash into the wall. But you don't make a huge … almost like if you shot it into a piece of metal, you’d have this beautiful kind of cratered – like a drop of water that got frozen, you know? … It's not super forgiving (when it hits people). (laugh) We definitely have a huge R and D period ahead of us for how that does look. Maybe it just passes cleanly through you. I don't know. That might be nice. It cauterizes (the wound).
Weapons are going to be needed in Rebel Moon. Snyder is constructing what he refers to as a “good versus evil / few versus many” story, with the rebellious Kora (Sofia Boutella) inspiring ordinary people on the farming planet of Veldt to fight back against the Imperium … even if it means sacrificing everything that they have worked for their whole lives. They won’t have to do it alone. Snyder describes Rebel Moon as sort of a Seven Samurai in space, and Charlie Hunnam described his character of KaI as someone who will help Kora travel to distant planets to recruit the baddest of the bad to aid Veldt in its pushback against the Imperium.
It has been reported that Zack Snyder pitched his idea for Rebel Moon to Lucasfilm as a possible chapter in the ongoing Star Wars saga, and even asked Warner Bros. if they wanted to collaborate on it (though they turned him down). He found willing partners at Netflix, and then assembled an impressive ensemble to surround Sofia Boutella, including Hunnam, Ed Skrein, Djimon Hounsou, and Anthony Hopkins, voicing a combat robot named Jimmy. See if this band of heroes succeeds when Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire hits the streaming service on December 22.
