The New Trailer For The Director's Cuts of 'Rebel Moon' Is Here

By Brian Richards | Film | July 22, 2024 |

By Brian Richards | Film | July 22, 2024 |

There have been numerous complaints made against its director/co-writer Zack Snyder since it was first announced last year that there would be extended director’s cuts for both parts of his sci-fi film Rebel Moon, to be released this summer. Both his fans and his detractors were left wondering why Snyder would need a director’s cut for a film on which he was given free rein and creative control to tell his story the way he wanted, and with a studio like Netflix that gave him more support than he received from Warner Bros. when he was directing films for the DC Extended Universe. Some even saw this situation as Snyder taking advantage of his fanbase and his popularity by expecting the same passionate enthusiasm for a director’s cut of Rebel Moon as the director’s cut of Justice League.

The reason Snyder announced that there would be director’s cuts for Rebel Moon? Scott Stuber, the former head of film for Netflix, wanted him to make shorter, family-friendly versions of the film that everyone could watch together without any need for the streaming service’s parental controls, in exchange for Snyder getting the green light to make alternate R-rated versions with more violence, more sexual content, and each part of the film having an additional hour of footage. This explanation made fans incredibly upset with Netflix, and with Snyder, with some stating that he never should’ve agreed to such a stipulation in the first place.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Netflix originally asked Snyder to make PG-13 cuts of both his Rebel Moon films so that younger teenagers could watch without Netflix parental controls serving as a barrier. Historically, PG-13 films also present more merchandising opportunities. But, in exchange, he was given complete creative freedom to make two R-rated director’s cuts, and he’s champing at the bit for the audience to see his original vision.

“The director’s cuts really are the alternate universe version of these movies. They’re what I wrote. They’re much more mythological and much more tonally weird and much more the deconstructivist quality of the sci-fi universe that I intended,” Snyder admits. “I really wanted to make a movie that was much more Heavy Metal magazine than Star Wars, and much more irreverent than reverent. The PG-13 version is much more earnest. It’s weirdly earnest because you don’t have over-the-top sex and violence to set a tone. The [director’s cuts] are both three hours long with tons of scenes that you’ve never seen and just tons of other crazy stuff, as well as a very significant R rating that is not a joke.”

The trailer for the R-rated director’s cuts of Rebel Moon premiered earlier today, and both films will have different titles from the PG-13 versions (Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire, and Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver), to reflect that these extended cuts will be entirely different from what viewers watched in those two films. The titles for the extended cuts are Rebel Moon - Chapter One: Chalice of Blood, and Rebel Moon: Chapter Two - Curse of Forgiveness.

On August 2, experience Rebel Moon the way I've envisioned it. pic.twitter.com/iUxMWJ4ixU

— Zack Snyder (@ZackSnyder) July 22, 2024

Snyder has often received more positive responses from critics and fans for the director’s cuts of his films, compared to their theatrical versions (Watchmen, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder’s Justice League), and some are expecting the same thing to happen when Rebel Moon is finally shown to the world the way it was meant to be seen. Others are hoping that Netflix has learned its lesson about demanding filmmakers like Zack Snyder to deliver watered-down versions of their films, instead of simply letting them do their thing without any studio interference that only ends up making things worse.

Another recent announcement by Snyder and Netflix regarding upcoming Rebel Moon material is that there will be a six-part weekly podcast titled The Seneschal: A Rebel Moon Story, which focuses on the origins of the Jimmys, the loyal and fiercely protective robot knights voiced in the film by Sir Anthony Hopkins. The voice cast will include Ella Purnell (who starred in Snyder’s Army of the Dead, and is now starring in the Amazon Prime Video series Fallout), Naveen Andrews, Alfred Enoch, Peter Serafinowicz, and Jason Isaacs.

The official synopsis for The Seneschal: A Rebel Moon Story…

Long before the Motherworld battled the rebel army on Veldt, 500 years before Issa was reborn, Moa and its colonies were ruled over by a mercurial and brutish despot, the mad King Ulmer. Despised by his people but determined to hold on to power at all costs, Ulmer revives the lost prophecy of Issa as a balm for the masses. And with it, he orders a pair of renowned inventors to build a warrior knight unlike any before. A tale of creation, ambition, faith, and betrayal, this is the story of the first Jimmy, the man who constructed him, and the woman who gave him life.

The Seneschal: a six-part Rebel Moon podcast about the story of the first Jimmy. First episode out July 29. https://t.co/kZctfJitny pic.twitter.com/iW8MUIUjdZ

— Zack Snyder (@ZackSnyder) July 19, 2024

Rebel Moon: Chapter One - Chalice of Blood and Rebel Moon: Chapter Two - Curse of Forgiveness will both premiere on Netflix August 2.