Zack Snyder is ready for audiences to compare Rebel Moon to Star Wars.
The epic Netflix original — a space opera centered on a scrappy rebellion against a tyrannical dictatorship — will likely draw comparisons to a galaxy far, far away.
“Of course those comparisons are going to be made,” Snyder tells Vanity Fair. “Anything that has a spaceship in it is going to be: ‘This is blank’s Star Wars.’ So I understand and sort of welcome the comparisons. But at the same time, I do believe that our thing is really an entirely different experience.”
However, Snyder did pitch a Star Wars film to Lucasfilm shortly before Disney acquired the IP.
“I was in post-production on Man of Steel,” Snyder recalls. “I had heard there were rumblings about possibly doing another three [Star Wars] movies at some point. My take was that if you just let me have the IP, I’ll make this cool movie, and I won’t get in the way of anything that you guys are doing.”
Snyder’s film would not have impacted extant Star Wars canon up to that point. The director met with Kathleen Kennedy to pitch the concept, but Disney went in a different direction.
Who is in the Rebel Moon cast?
The Rebel Moon cast includes Sofia Boutella as Kora. The other characters will be played by Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Ray Fisher, Jena Malone, Charlie Hunnam, Cary Elwes, and Anthony Hopkins in a voice role.
“A peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius,” reads the film’s synopsis. “The desperate civilians dispatch Kora, a young woman who has a mysterious past, to seek out warriors from nearby planets to help them challenge the regent.”
Rebel Moon releases on Netflix on December 22, 2023.
