With Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon, Netflix shoots for the stars in epic space-fantasy fashion

Zack Snyder is proud of Rebel Moon – like, really proud. The fan-favorite filmmaker marks his return with a new multimedia IP for Netflix that – say it quietly – the streaming giant hopes will stand alongside iconic franchises, including Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), for years to come.

Turning such ambitions into reality, though, isn't easy. Unlike the aforementioned duo, Netflix doesn't yet have a mixed media tour-de-force to call its own. Stranger Things is arguably the closest thing Netflix has to a juggernaut franchise, with its First Shadow prequel stage play, video game adaptations, and various literary works having expanded the hugely popular TV show beyond its small screen confines.

Rebel Moon, then, has the chance to complete Netflix's transformation from streaming powerhouse to multimedia behemoth. The trailblazing project that aims to ignite the touch-paper is Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire, an ambitious and visually arresting "space fantasy" flick that Snyder is – biased opinion aside – besotted with.

"It's a real labor of love," Snyder tells TechRadar. "It was incredibly satisfying to bring all of its organic elements together to try and create this sort of retro feeling movie I grew up watching."

Galaxy quest

Rebel Moon Part 1 follows Kora (Sofia Boutella), a mysterious individual with a tragic past who, after being taken in by a farming community on the fictional moon Veldt, is given a second chance at life.

However, the arrival of Motherworld, a space-faring superpower ruled by Grand Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee) that seeks dominion over the galaxy, endangers Veldt's peaceful existence. Threatened with destruction by Balisarius' second-in-command Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) for selling grain to the Bloodaxes – freedom fighters who oppose Motherworld – Veldt's days appear numbered. Determined not to let Veldt suffer the same fate as her home world, Kora – with the aid of faint-hearted farmhand Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) – sets out to recruit warriors who have similarly faced the Imperium's wrath and are willing to fight for Veldt's freedom.

Given it was originally pitched as a Star Wars project in 2012 – Snyder conceived of the idea in college – Lucasfilm's famous galaxy far, far away has left an indelible mark on Snyder's film. Influential as Star Wars has been, though, there are other notable inspirations, including multiple Akira Kurosawa films (Seven Samurai being the most obvious), western team-up flicks like The Dirty Dozen, sci-fi epics like Dune, and four surprising movies that, as Snyder tells us, informed Rebel Moon's development above all others.

While there's a veritable bounty of classic and unexpected influences on Rebel Moon Part 1, there was only one star Snyder wanted to play Kora. Step forward Boutella, whose background in rhythmic gymnastics and street dance, alongside her obvious acting talents, made her the sole contender for Rebel Moon's protagonist – a situation Boutella found somewhat daunting upon agreeing to star as, and then enter the traumatized headspace of, Kora.

"Emotionally, I've never observed or experienced a character like this in a film role before," she reveals. "When we meet Kora, she's a mysterious individual with an obscure side, and you'll understand why that is in the movie. You'll find out why she behaves and moves in certain ways, which I owe to my dance background, years of sustaining my muscles and body structure, and training a lot to shoot the intense sequences we had to film. But it was entertaining to incorporate that into Kora and her complexities, and have fun turning her into a badass character."

Behind every great hero is a calculating villain, and A Child of Fire is no different. The reprehensible foil to Boutella's Kora is Skrein's Noble, a maniacal high-ranking Imperium officer whose sole objective is to crush insurgencies – including the Bloodaxes and Kora's revolutionaries – who oppose Motherworld's tyrannical status quo.

For Skrein, who's used to playing complex antagonists and dislikeable characters, the opportunity to portray a truly despicable individual that he could push as far as possible was one he relished, albeit with an unsettling caveat.

"Unpredictability and danger are so compelling to watch," he muses. "So I was really looking forward to entering that Jungian shadow work headspace. I enjoyed exploring that dark place and thinking about what we could be capable of if our upbringing and conditioning was different.

"What we see from this horrible man is everyone's worst nightmare, so how far can I lean into that? It took seven months of going deep underwater, through different increments, to get to that point. As a creative, it was an incredible experience but, as a human, it was challenging because a lot of scenes were straightforwardly dark and heavy. I was so finely tuned to Noble that it took a year post-filming to purge the part from me."

Building a rebel alliance

Kora and Gunnar aren't alone in squaring off against Noble and his wicked affiliates. Traversing the known galaxy with the aid of roguish space pilot Kai (Charlie Hunnam), the duo tracks down allies – some need more convincing than others, mind you – for their cause, including master swordswoman Nemesis (Doona Bae), co-insurgency leader Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher), and Darrian's devoted foot soldier Millius (E. Duffy).

Modest reinforcements they might be, particularly in the face of insurmountable odds and with untrained fighters like Gunnar among the group's ranks. But, as Huisman explains, every single individual – Gunnar included – has something to fight for, regardless of their independent circumstances and histories.

"Gunnar believes the Imperium's arrival [on Veldt] could be an opportunity to sustain his community by selling the surplus of its harvest", Huisman says. "But that turns out to be a very naïve calculation on his part, so Rebel Moon Part 1 is about redemption for my character. It was a very satisfying arc to play because of the personal journey he's on."

On the other end of the spectrum to Gunnar sit Darrian and Millius – plus Darrian's sister Devra (Cleopatra Coleman), who co-leads the Bloodaxe's militia – whose years-long rebellion has taken its toll. As Fisher and Duffy reveal, however, it's been a righteous cause worth pursuing, one they can't suddenly turn a blind eye to when Kora's band of warriors seek their help.

"The Bloodaxes are talked about often through the film," Fisher says. "There's a hype built up around them and, when you meet them, they're certainly an impressive group. They've had victories and losses. But Darrian and Devra have different philosophies on fighting the Imperium, and Darrian opts to make a choice [to join Kora's resistance] that could have dire consequences for everything that exists in this universe."

"Millius is someone who's very inspired by Darrian's spirit," Duffy adds of their refugee-turned-warrior. "They found the Bloodaxes at a time when they needed purpose, direction, and a community, which was provided for them. That gives Millius a sense of gratitude and dedication to the cause, so they're bound to follow Darrian wherever he leads."

Worlds not-so-far apart

Fantastical and fictional as Rebel Moon's universe is, it's rooted in real-world culture and immoral periods throughout human history.

The former is most evident in Tarak (Staz Nair). When audiences first meet the nobleman, he's paying off a debt to a Neu-Wodi rancher for an alleged crime. Like Kora, Tarak's past is shrouded in mystery, and in Rebel Moon Part 1, we learn little about who he is or where he's from. One thing viewers discover, though, is Tarak's native tongue – dubbed Samanditran – that helps him form special bonds with mythical creatures, such as the griffon-like Bennu, and was created by combining two real-world languages.

"I'm fortunate to be bilingual," says Nair. "And I'm currently learning Portuguese, my wife's language. So, when I started collaborating on Tarak's history, Zack very graciously said, 'Why don't you get involved with creating Samanditran's syntax and structure?', which gave me the opportunity to mix my mother tongue [of] Russian with Portuguese. To get that trust and autonomy from Zack to bring Tarak to life gave me confidence and made me want to really invest in his vision."

For Djimon Hounsou, who plays a disgraced ex-Imperium General named Titus that Kora aims to recruit, the draw of playing a key character in A Child of Fire – and Rebel Moon overall – owed much to not only the Beninese-born actor's experiences of living in a nation formerly under French rule, but the continent's centuries-long colonial past. Indeed, the Imperium's multi-world oppression in one of 2023's new Netflix movies is a symbolic theme that wasn't lost on Hounsou upon reading Rebel Moon Part 1's script.

"Rebel Moon is written in a way that resonates with the geopolitical tentacles that have been holding Africa back for centuries," Hounsou explains. "We also come to understand that Titus has, under Imperium command, committed war crimes and genocide, which I could similarly see in the few African presidents I've met. The makeup of Titus' character really resembles them who, for the sake of good governance, have done great harm to their people and nations."

With its positioning as Netflix's tentpole film for the 2023 festive season, plus Snyder enthusiasts all but certain to lap it up, Rebel Moon Part 1 is almost guaranteed to be a hit. With a vast, centuries-old universe of limitless potential ripe for exploration, Rebel Moon is more than merely Netflix's answer to Star Wars, it's also the epic sci-fi fantasy franchise the streaming titan has been looking for.

However, unlike Lucasfilm's sci-fi juggernaut and the MCU's meticulous 'one movie at a time' assembly (a plan that's fallen by the wayside since Marvel's churn-based output began in Phase 4), Rebel Moon appears to be running before it can walk.

Indeed, a sequel – Part 2: The Scargiver, which arrives in April 2024 – isn't the only project in the works. A Bloodaxe prequel comic book launches in mid-January, while an animated TV show, narrative podcast, a third movie, and director's cuts of Rebel Moon Parts 1 and 2 – even its cast couldn't believe how long both films' extended versions are – are all in development. And, as we suggested in our Rebel Moon Part 1 review, A Child of Fire is far from Snyder's best movie.

In an era where studios are constantly searching for the next money-spinning franchise with varying degrees of success – the less said about the soon-to-be-defunct DCEU, which Snyder was a part of, the better – it might seem odd to see Netflix place so much faith in Rebel Moon. No matter whether you think his movies are good or not, though, a Zack Snyder film – let alone an embryonic franchise with endless possibilities – is a huge audience draw. It's that earnest confidence in Snyder and his unmistakable pulling power that, in Netflix's eyes, won't just allow it to shoot for the stars, but might help it become a universally adored multimedia series.

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