Zack Snyder calls “Rebel Moon” sequel 'a war movie': 'The stakes have risen'

See an exclusive sneak peek at "Part Two: The Scargiver." The director sets up what's to come in the next chapter of his new sci-fi saga.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire.

Zack Snyder has assembled his team of sci-fi heroes. Now it’s time for them to fight.

Over the course of Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire, streaming now on Netflix, the mysterious warrior Kora (Sofia Boutella) recruited a ragtag group of fighters from across the stars in order to protect the farmers of Veldt from the authoritarian army of the Imperium. That first film ended with the group arriving back on Veldt, which has wheat fields that are highly sought by Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) and his army.

But that’s not all they want anymore. Now that Kora’s identity has been confirmed as the adopted daughter of galactic regent Belisarius (Fra Free), next year's Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver will find the Imperium coming at the planet with everything they’ve got.

"Part Two is a war movie,” Snyder tells EW. “We know that Noble's alive and Belisarius has given him the task of finding his daughter and bringing her back to him at all costs. So the stakes have risen for the village from ‘hey, we want some of your grain’ to now ‘you’re harboring the most wanted fugitive in the history of the galaxy.’”

EW has an exclusive sneak peek at the sequel, featuring two of Kora’s comrades, the gladiator-general Titus (Djimon Honsou) and the noble warrior Tarak (Staz Nair), in the throes of battle. Although he won’t get specific on timing, Snyder says that a huge portion of The Scargiver is this battle on Veldt. Given Rebel Moon’s conscious evocation of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, fans should expect a climax on par with that Japanese classic’s massive village battle, albeit on a sci-fi scale.

“It was fun to plan the battle and try to figure out how Kora and the village could stand a chance against a world-destroying spacecraft,” Snyder says, referring to the Dreadnought commanded by Noble.

The Scargiver will also revisit the royal family that ruled the Motherworld until they were wiped out by mysterious assassins. Viewers got brief flashbacks to the royals in A Child of Fire, since Kora was once a bodyguard for the young princess Issa (Stella Grace Fitzgerald). The robot Jimmy (voiced by Anthony Hopkins) explained that Issa, whose name has mythic connotations in this world, was supposed to “usher in a new age of peace and compassion.”

“Issa is the redeemer. She’s the second chance,” Snyder says. “A version of her has existed in the past. Two other times in the history of the Motherworld’s existence, a version of Issa has been born into the royal family to reel ‘em back in, because every few thousand years they get completely out of control. Issa is born to unite them again and bring order.”

Snyder teases that The Scargiver will reveal more about what really happened to the royal family, and what role Kora might have played in their fate. Even the title is relevant.

“The title has to do with Kora,” Snyder says. “We learn something in Part Two about Kora's ‘crimes,’ what she's wanted for and why the Imperium is after her.”

But even when The Scargiver hits Netflix next year, that won’t be the end of Rebel Moon. For one thing, Snyder is planning on releasing R-rated director’s cuts of each film, though release dates have not yet been announced. But the director also sees his new sci-fi universe as “a bottomless pit of stories.” That’s one reason that he cast 36-year-old Free in the role of the galaxy’s tyrannical ruler.

“This hasn't been confirmed, but I was hoping if there were ever a spinoff, like a TV show or something, about the younger days of Belisarius, that I would love a young actor to play that part. So we just aged him for this,” Snyder says. “Now I'm not saying that's happening or that there's even really discussions of that, but I think that he's such a rich and interesting character and he's such a great actor that the potential is really amazing. If the story were to continue past the two movies that we've made, his role would increase exponentially, as you can imagine.”

It’s a tried-and-true method that worked pretty well for Star Wars creator George Lucas, who cast Ian McDiarmid to play Emperor Palpatine in old-age makeup for Return of the Jedi. McDiarmid was then able to play a younger Palpatine in the Star Wars prequels.

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is set to premiere on Netflix in April 2024. Check out the exclusive photos above.

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