Summary
- Fans love Zack Snyder for his DC movies, and his upcoming sci-fi epic Rebel Moon has Netflix investing heavily in his vision.
- Rebel Moon follows a woman seeking warriors to stand against a tyrannical government. Netflix has already greenlit multiple projects within the universe.
- Netflix's faith in Snyder may be misplaced as his films prioritize style over substance, lacking in character development and often featuring plot holes, though Rebel Moon may be his transformative project.
Fans love Zack Snyder for his DC movies, from Man of Steel to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Fans have even gone as far as to get Warner Bros. Studios to release an extended cut of Justice League that featured the director's true vision for the film. Snyder is now hard at work with his new project, a science fiction epic titled Rebel Moon, which has been a dream of his for two decades. At one point, he pitched the idea to Lucasfilm as a Star Wars flick, but it never went further than some concept art. The director eventually turned to Netflix, where his vision will be realized.
Rebel Moon is currently in post-production and set to release before the end of 2023. Heavily inspired by Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Rebel Moon is about a colony at the galaxy's edge threatened by a tyrannical government. A woman with a mysterious past seeks out warriors throughout the galaxy to stand against the tyranny. Netflix has so much faith in Snyder's vision the studio has already greenlit multiple projects within the Rebel Moon universe.
Rebel Moon's Planned Spin-Offs
One thing studios have wanted since the success of Marvel's cinematic universe is their own shared cinematic universe. Many studios have tried to duplicate Marvel's success, but they've all failed, including the DC movies. Now Netflix is giving it a shot with Snyder's Rebel Moon. It appears Netflix just needed the right project to land in its lap. The Man of Steel director told Empire:
When I pitched it to Netflix, the scale was a thing they wanted. They were like, 'Well, how big could it be? How many movies?' That made me go, 'Okay, if we really do this, we can sink our teeth pretty deep into this. We can't really hit the bottom.'
It's not unheard of for a studio to greenlight a second season of a show or a movie sequel based on early reviews and testing. Still, they traditionally wait for a project to release, especially a new IP, before making a final decision. That's not the case for Rebel Moon. Since the streaming goliath was eager to create their own cinematic universe, they bought Snyder's idea and told him to develop more. And more he developed.
The director and his writing team have already created a 450-page bible dedicated to the film's antagonists, the Imperium. They've also mapped out a 12-foot whiteboard detailing the entire Rebel Moon timeline, with the first two films taking up only a few inches. During an interview with Total Film, Snyder revealed that, on top of the two feature films, the team is developing a narrative podcast, an animated comic book, and an animated series as prequels to the films. With him also announcing a co-op video game in the Rebel Moon universe, that's a lot of projects based around a universe established in a movie that audiences haven't even seen yet.
Netflix is Putting Too Much Faith in Zack Snyder
|
Zack Snyder Films by Box Office Total |
|
|---|---|
|
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice |
$874 million |
|
Man of Steel |
$668 million |
|
Justice League |
$658 million |
|
300 |
$456 million |
|
Watchmen |
$185 million |
There's no arguing that Rebel Moon looks exciting and fun. It might borrow from Star Wars here and there, which will earn it some negative reviews from the harshest critics, but that's mostly because Snyder found inspiration from similar sources as George Lucas. The science fiction genre is fantastic at delivering deep-seated themes that serve as cautionary tales for society. Rebel Moon will give both Snyder and sci-fi fans something to really bite into. However, does the project deserve as many spin-offs as it's receiving before the first movie even premieres?
Netflix is putting a lot of faith in a director who hasn't done anything transformative for the science fiction genre or the film industry at large. Snyder has a talent for putting butts in seats because his movies are flashy, which appeals to a wide audience. However, his work rarely features a story of substance. The character development is frequently an afterthought that sits second-fiddle to large explosives and shiny special effects. Watchmen and 300 were nearly carbon copies of the source material with meaningless changes. His DCEU films were littered with plot holes and poor choices. The one thing the director is good at is style.
Putting butts in seats is good from a business perspective, which every studio is about first and foremost. However, the best films have an understated artistic value. Movies that audiences remember for decades to come are the ones that touch a person's soul and move them on an emotional level; the ones that are capable of more than selling tickets. That said, perhaps Rebel Moon will be Snyder's big transformative project. Netflix certainly thinks so, as the studio envisions it rivaling Star Wars and the MCU. Only time will tell if Netflix is making the right move by putting its eggs into this moon-sized basket.