Zack Snyder says shooting two versions of Rebel Moon was 'craziness'

Watch: Zack Snyder shares update on Rebel Moon's R-rated extended cut

Ahead of the release of Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver — streaming on Netflix from Friday, 19 April — writer-director Zack Snyder has shared more detail on the R-rated extended cuts of the franchise that he's releasing later in 2024.

“It's just going to be a deeper dive [into] everything,” Snyder tells Yahoo UK about the director’s cuts of both Part One and Part Two, which will each be an hour longer than the PG-13 versions. “A lot of scenes we shot exclusively for that version of the movie," Snyder adds "It's more of an alternate universe than an extended version.”

The streaming services’ king of the Director’s Cut, Snyder made space opera Rebel Moon with two versions in mind from the off: a two-part, four-hour long PG-13 rated version (out now), and a two-part six(ish)-hour long R rated version coming later in 2024.

In a few of the sequences, the “in-scene stuff” is different. “So it's very weird,” says Snyder. “If you were to go forward and make another movie, and you were going to do another Director's Cut, they might diverge even more.

"They might end up these two entirely different, parallel experiences. So, for people who are fans of the movie and really enjoyed it, I think the Director's Cuts are gonna just really flesh out the world way more.”

Read more: Zack Snyder says Rebel Moon 3 could be 'crazily' bigger than first two films

The different scenes for each version of the films were shot side by side during filming. Snyder describes the process as “craziness”.

“It was really weird,” says Snyder. “My script supervisor Kimi [Webber] really did not like it at all because she had to keep track of everything. She'd be like, ‘Oh, no, he needs to say this dialogue from the Director's Cut in the same scene’.

"So the actor would be like, ‘Okay, wait, what?’ and I’d be like, ‘Okay, that was great; now do this dialogue, remember, from the other [script]… Oh f***, that's right, it said alt right there.’ I didn't know what that meant. It's that kind of craziness. But [Kimi] kept track of all of it. So it was really incredible.”

With all that in mind, how does the cast think the Director’s Cut will be received?

“The reaction is not up to us,” says Staz Nair, who plays Kora’s rebel recruit and former Samandraian prince Tarak in the film. “What creative person who's put their time, blood, sweat, and tears into a project doesn't want the reaction to be positive, ultimately?

"But I just hope it’s a deeper dive, which I believe it is, into the worlds that Zack has spent 30 decades imagining and then creating over ten years and I think it's, in many ways — at least in my opinion — a more realistic kind of depiction of what I think a dystopian future would look like. So I hope that, and I know that, will transcend and come out in the Director’s Cut.”

Kora actor Sofia Boutella calls the Director’s Cut a more “raw” look at the world of Rebel Moon.

“I’d love to hear what people feel and think about it,” Boutella tells Yahoo UK. “Sometimes, it's difficult [to tell] when you're that close to something… I think it's fun when you appreciate a piece to watch another version of it that’s more intricate or more detailed.”

Ed Skrein, who plays antagonist Admiral Atticus Noble across the two films, meanwhile, doesn’t care what the reaction is.

“I just want to see it for myself because that's the movie we shot,” says Skrein. “The most important thing is the process for us [actors]. It's really not results dependent for us. However, I want to objectively analyse it. I want to look at what we've done objectively and say, ‘How did my decisions come across? What can I do better in the process of acting for next time?’

"But also, it's the type of movie that I want to see. I read a lot of comic books, and comic books aren't safe, like these PG-13 movies. They can be kind of safe but then one or two pages will just break your heart with something real-life and traumatic.

"And I just love R-rated, crazy movies and I like art when it pushes the boundaries. I don't necessarily need to be as binary as ‘Oh, this is good or this is bad’. I want to feel something new. And I feel like what we shot is new. The R- rated versions, that was some crazy s***. And I want to see that crazy s***.”

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is streaming on Netflix from Friday, 19 April.

The Rebel Moon extended cuts are due to stream later in 2024.