Zack Snyder famously had a plan for an R-rated Star Wars story that never saw the light of day, thanks to Disney buying out the IP before Snyder had a chance to pitch it properly. Several years later, the idea found itself being developed as an original IP by Netflix, something that Snyder hoped would turn into a juggernaut like Star Wars itself.
While beloved by Zack Snyder fans and general audiences, the beginning of the Rebel Moon IP failed to impress critics with its first part, A Child of Fire. Considering that the girl was only the first half of the story, Snyder has come out saying that the first film will merit re-evaluation when the second film, The Scargiver, hits streaming on April 19th.
Zack Snyder believes seeing the full story will change peoples’ opinions about the film
Speaking to Looper, Zack Snyder talked about what he hopes the second installment of his franchise will achieve. Given the sprawling amount of details that have been cooked into the story to make a full-fledged IP, each installment of the story will merit viewing the story as a whole. However, the second installment in the franchise is bound to make people look at the first film in a different light, according to Snyder. He said:
“Yeah, well, I mean I think that’s sort of the fun of the two movies now. When you [see it on] April 19, you’ll have both movies available and really you’ll be able to see them in their totality. And I think it’ll be an interesting sort of experience now to see the whole story in a single stroke.
I think there has to be, in some way, some sort of reevaluating of how you feel about it based on movie one just being the first. Basically, you read the first chapter of the book [are] you like, “Okay, well this is what I think of the book?” So it’s hard to say.”
The idea here is to allow the second part to function in tandem with the first part to realize the vision of the director, something that has sort of become a trend nowadays in the industry. Dune, under Denis Villeneuve, had a similar issue but did not require its second half to justify its first installment.
Rebel Moon has a few things riding on it for Netflix
Rebel Moon as a property is something that Netflix is counting on, given that they have been investing heavily in directors producing original content for them. Be it Guillermo Del Toro‘s Pinnochio or Snyder’s Rebel Moon, Netflix is keen on developing some properties of its own, in the same way it did with The Umbrella Academy and Stranger Things. However, with both these properties coming to an end soon, it seems that Netflix is hard-pressed to create some new IPs that could hold audience interest in the science fiction/ fantasy department.
If the promises for The Scargiver are well kept, it is possible that Netflix would be open to expanding the world. However, if it fails to draw audiences, it can be assumed that the rest of the franchise will have to find a pace somewhere else. While it is unlikely that Netflix will let that IP go, it might just choose to pivot away from it towards something more lucrative, perhaps something like Arcane, Castlevania, One Piece, Avatar: The Last Airbender, or Blue Eye Samurai.
Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver begins streaming on Netflix on April 19th, 2024
