The director's cut of Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon is so long, even its cast couldn't believe it

The cast of Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon have expressed shock at the extensive runtime of the duology's forthcoming director's cuts.

Speaking to TechRadar at the UK junket for the Netflix franchise's first instalment, Michiel Huisman and E. Duffy, who play Gunnar and Millius in Rebel Moon, were stunned to learn how much more content there'll be in the sci-fi fantasy movie's extended versions.

We already knew that Zack Snyder really wanted Rebel Moon's director's cut to test our runtime limits. In August, the fan-favorite filmmaker suggested the extended R-rated cut of Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire, which doesn't have a release date yet, will contain an extra hour's worth of footage compared to its PG-13 edition. With the runtime of the latter set at two hours, the movie's extended cut is likely to eclipse the three-hour mark.

That's not all, either, as the PG-13 and R-rated versions of Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver are expected to have similar runtimes to their predecessors. If that's the case, The Scargiver's director's cut will also run for around three hours, meaning anyone who watches Rebel Moon's Snyder cuts back-to-back will have to set aside a whopping six hours to do so.

Watching the two new Netflix movies in one sitting on the world's best streaming service, then, is going to be a mammoth undertaking – and the expressions on the faces of some cast members spoke volumes when they found out. Indeed, I asked Huisman, Duffy, and fellow actor Ray Fisher (the latter plays Darrian Bloodaxe) what viewers should expect from the director's cut of both movies and, after Fisher revealed how much extra footage would be on show, Huisman and Duffy were taken aback by the extended cuts' runtimes.

"They'll be a lot more expansive," Fisher said. "I mean, there's another hour of the film [A Child of Fire], so just imagine another 30% worth of time where we really get to dig into who these characters are, their backstories and the culture–"

"Wait, another hour?" Huisman interjected, before Duffy added: "Is that true?"

"Yeah, another hour – per part, I believe," said Fisher, whose response drew a stunned expression from Duffy and a short burst of shock-laced laughter from Huisman.

Snyder enthusiasts have previous experience with sitting through one of his lengthy director's cuts. In March 2021, Zack Snyder's Justice League, his extended cut of 2017's DCEU movie Justice League, arrived on Max (formerly HBO Max) with a runtime of four hours and two minutes. As a duology, however, Rebel Moon will surpass that duration and then some, so you'll want to stock up on plenty of snacks – and plan those bathroom breaks – if and when you binge the the movies' R-rated cuts when they arrive.

Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire launches on Netflix on Thursday, December 21 in the US, and Friday, December 22 in the UK and Australia.

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