Filmmaker Zack Snyder made a name for himself with hit movies such as 300 and Man of Steel. Snyder’s most recent offering is the two-part space opera Rebel Moon, which was heavily inspired and originally started off as a pitch for a Star Wars movie, which never materialized and eventually landed at Netflix.
Despite being critically panned, Rebel Moon did one thing right by cleverly avoiding a trope that has become seriously overused in Star Wars. In an interview, Snyder spoke about the trend that has been repeated over and over again, explaining his reasoning behind altering it. Here is what Snyder had to say about Star Wars‘ most nonsensical and overused trope.
Zack Snyder Avoided One Disastrous Star Wars Trope in Rebel Moon
Zack Snyder directed the first installment of the Rebel Moon franchise, which was released in 2023. An R-rated director’s cut of the same, titled Rebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood, was released on August 2, 2024. Snyder sat down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where he discussed the director’s cut.
In the interview, Snyder was asked about the scene where Kora, played by Sofia Boutella, disguises herself as one of the Imperium soldiers to pull off a mission. The scene was compared to the repeated trope of Jedi or Rebels disguising themselves in the Star Wars franchise.
Yeah, the point was that I wanted it to be credible that they could pull it off. Kora obviously has great knowledge of protocol and how the whole thing works, and they have these uniforms and a dropship.
Snyder made the above statement, explaining why he decided to add a technical aspect to the scene where Kora disguises herself as a soldier of the Imperium, making the task a tad bit harder.
From the director’s words, it is evident that he was aware of how easy disguising oneself as a soldier of the Empire had become in the Star Wars franchise, especially during the Disney era. Hence, the director was clever enough to avoid the trope in his Star Wars-inspired movie.
Star Wars Needs to Avoid the Overused Disguise Trope That Makes No Sense
Snyder’s statement and his solution to the overused disguise trope in Star Wars further highlight the problem with the space opera franchise repeatedly using the same idea without any nuance. Furthermore, the nature of the sci-fi advancements in the galaxy far, far away makes it almost nonsensical for the disguised Rebels and Jedi to go undetected.
The trope was used in The Last Jedi, where Finn disguises himself as a Stormtrooper. The disguise becomes almost unbelievable since the scene relies on the fact that Finn was previously a Stormtrooper, and expects the audience not to worry about the logistics of Finn disguising himself.
Moreover, given that the universe has cracked lightspeed space travel, it doesn’t make sense that the Empire cannot detect infiltrators. In contrast, Kora’s knowledge of the Imperium is on full display in Rebel Moon, which makes the scene more nuanced and challenging for the characters.
Ultimately, Rebel Moon perfectly highlights the problem of the overused disguise trope and needs to be retired as soon as possible. The Star Wars universe has introduced some of the most popular concepts such as the Force and lightsabers but the disguise trope has certainly not been its best suit.
Rebel Moon movies are streaming on Netflix while Star Wars movies are available on Disney+.
