Despite poor review scores, Zack Snyder’s sci-fi movie series Rebel Moon could stretch to as many as six films. Snyder told RadioTimes that he’s considering four or six Rebel Moon movies.
Rebel Moon and Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver were filmed back-to-back (a relatively common Hollywood practice to help save money), and if any sequels are filmed this way as well, Snyder said he could see up to six Rebel Moon films.
“I guess four makes sense. Four or six movies, depending… I guess it’s whether or not every time we make one of these movies we make two, that’s the question,” he said. “We were talking about it the other day and I was like, would an audience be disappointed if they only got one movie now from Rebel Moon? Would they be like, ‘Oh, it’s one now? Great.'”
Snyder sold Rebel Moon to Netflix some time ago, but the company is now under new leadership that is apparently more cost conscious. It remains to be seen if Snyder will get to make any additional Rebel Moon movies at Netflix or elsewhere, but he has the story nailed down.
“We absolutely have the story all set, we did all that work. We wrote a treatment for the movie so we’ll see how we go ahead,” he said.
The Scargiver, a sequel to 2023’s Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire, hits Netflix on April 19. Snyder’s R-rated cut of the first Rebel Moon will be released sometime later. A Rebel Moon video game is also in the works.
As mentioned, the first Rebel Moon did not do very well with critics, and the audience scores are relatively low, too. Speaking to Empire, Snyder said he doesn’t have a “rebuttal” to the poor reviews (Rebel Moon sits at a 31 on GameSpot sister site Metacritic). “For whatever reason, the reaction to my movies is very polarizing, and it always has been. The movie, it doesn’t seem like there’s that much in it that would warrant such visceral responses.”
Among other things, some reviews took issue with an implied rape scene in Rebel Moon, with The Hollywood Reporter saying Snyder’s attempt to create a “menacing” enemy came across simply as “gross.” Beyond that scene in particular, many reviews said the Star Wars-inspired sci-fi movie was simply just not very good.
Rebel Moon star Sofia Boutella said the negative reaction to the movie “really affected me,” adding that it was “hard to see something being demolished to that extent.”
Despite the lowly reviews, Boutella said she was “proud to have been part of it,” and that if the series does not continue, it will remain a “very important part of my life that I will defend forever.”
Rebel Moon cracked the top 10 in terms of most streaming views in its first three days for Netflix original movies in 2023, and was No. 1 during its launch week, according to Netflix’s own streaming data.
Rebel Moon was born out of the ashes of Snyder’s R-rated Star Wars movie pitch that Lucasfilm rejected, which is why the film bears so many similarities to the iconic Star Wars series.
Snyder had worked with Netflix prior to making Rebel Moon, as he made the zombie movie Army of the Dead for the streaming giant. He’s also known for his theatrical movies, including 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League.
