Rebel Moon producer Deborah Snyder, who is also the wife of the film’s director Zack Snyder, recently explained why she was glad the film did not become a Star Wars movie.
Back in June, Snyder explained to Vanity Fair how he originally pitched the idea of Rebel Moon to Lucasfilm to become a Star Wars film.
He detailed, “I was in postproduction on Man of Steel. 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.”
Vanity Fair’s Anthony Breznican further explained, “Snyder first met with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy shortly before the company’s sale, and he later sat down with Disney’s then studio chief, Alan Horn, after the acquisition. While Snyder felt their reactions to his idea were promising, both the filmmaker and Lucasfilm ultimately decided it wasn’t going to work out.”
During a sneak peek visit to watch the Rebel Moon trailer as well as get an inside look at the film from its creators, Slashfilm’s Bill Bria reports Deborah Snyder explained why she was glad the film did not become a Star Wars movie.
She said, “Once, it was a Star Wars film, and I never wanted it to be. I remember, I said to Zack, ‘I just feel like your hands are going to be tied so much in what that IP is,’ even though it kind of lived outside of it. So I was kind of happy when that fell apart, because I always felt like it was better.”
“We learned so much with all our years working with the superheroes and creating those worlds, and to do something now that’s wholly original — we got to do a little bit of that in the world of zombies, and with Las Vegas, but to do something that is fantastical, we say it’s a science fantasy more than science fiction, and to take all those skills that Zack has been honing, and to do something in this space, just seemed really exciting,” Snyder elaborated.
While it’s unclear if Zack Snyder appeared to be glad it was not a Star Wars film, he did seemingly imply the idea that he would have to follow the rules of Star Wars was one of the reasons he ended up not making the film at Lucasfilm.
IGN reported Snyder informed them, “I don’t think you can make a sci-fi movie now that’s not going to be compared to a Star Wars movie in some way. And I do welcome [it], and I’m happy to discuss its place, or where it will end up in popular culture in regards to the legacy of Star Wars.”
He continued, “It’s a rare thing because the Star Wars fan base basically aged with the movies and then had children that then also became fans of the movie and their children had children who became fans of the movie. I understand the love of it and how canonized it is and actually how immobile it is. Which is probably why I’m here now doing it the way I’m doing it, because we really have no rules except for the ones we make.”
The official synopsis for Rebel Moon states, “When a peaceful colony on the edge of a galaxy finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force, Kora (Sofia Boutella), a mysterious stranger living among the villagers, becomes their best hope for survival.”
“Tasked with finding trained fighters who will unite with her in making an impossible stand against the Mother World, Kora assembles a small band of warriors — outsiders, insurgents, peasants and orphans of war from different worlds who share a common need for redemption and revenge. As the shadow of an entire Realm bears down on the unlikeliest of moons, a battle over the fate of a galaxy is waged, and in the process, a new army of heroes is formed,” it concludes.
The film is broken into two parts. The first part, A Child of Fire, arrives on Netflix on December 22, 2023. The second part, The Scargiver, arrives April 19, 2024.
What do you make of Deborah Snyder being glad the movie did not end up at Lucasfilm as a Star Wars film?
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