Rebel Moon | Part Two: The Scargiver continues the epic saga of Kora and the surviving warriors as they prepare to sacrifice everything, fighting alongside the brave people of Veldt, to defend a once peaceful village, a newfound homeland for those who have lost their own in the fight against the Motherworld.

Rebel Moon-Part One: A Child of Fire is a new space opera directed by Zack Snyder from a screenplay he co-wrote with Kurt Johnstad (300) and Shay Hatten (John Wick). It had a brief theatrical release before debuting on Netflix December 21st. Rebel Moon was the #1 most viewed film on the service for December. Reviews were mixed, with fans rating it as “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes, but critics more negative. The film follows a lone soldier named Kora (Sofia Boutella), who’s found a peaceful life and community on a farming moon, until the Imperium lands. Among the stars are Jimmy the robot, played by Anthony Hopkins.

The finale to the two-part scifi epic will stream on Netflix on April 19, 2024, and they’ve already released a trailer. The battles look even bigger and more intense. “The second movie is really a war movie,” Snyder told Screen Rant.

Netflix believes in Rebel Moon as a franchise, and already has a graphic novel based on the comic, that will continue for at least several more issues, from Titan Books . There’s also a video game in development, with a behind-the-scenes story of it’s own. Zack Snyder is reported to have plans to expand the sci-fi franchise with sequels, an animated series, spinoff comics, and a narrative podcast. No dates on these yet.

The success of Rebel Moon comes on the heels of uneven reception of films directed by Zack Snyder over the past ten years. His films 300, Watchmen, and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole were well liked and inspiring. His 2011 film Sucker Punch was a tedious bomb. His take on Superman in 2013’s Man of Steel, the subsequent Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) (whose title read more like a filing in appellate court than a motion picture) , and the confusingly edited Justice League (2017) put the hero in the “dark gritty remake” trope that was ill-fitted for the comic book hero ordinarily associated with freshness, honesty and wholesomeness.

The discontinuity in the editing of Justice League gave audiences the feeling that large chunks of the film had been left on the cutting room floor, and they were right. Four years after its release, Snyder gave the world Zack Snyder’s Justice League with much of that footage restored, which made it arguably a much better film.

Perhaps his experience with Justice League gave Snyder the confidence to announce that will also be R-rated version of both the Rebel Moon films, which Synder says “take place in a different dimension” than the PG-13 versions. If you want to learn more Rebel lore, this article goes into detail. (contains spoilers!)

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