In Rebel Moon, when a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius, they dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past named Kora to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them take a stand.
Now, we have a first look at the movie thanks to Vanity Fair. The website has shared new stills from Zack Snyder's sci-fi epic across its social media accounts, though more can be found by following the links in the Tweets below.
Among the characters we get a closer look at here are Nemesis (Doona Bae), Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher), Tarak (Staz Nair), Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), Kora (Sofia Boutella), Kai (Charlie Hunnam) and Milius (E. Duffy), General Titus (Djimon Hounsou), and Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein).
While the first part of the movie arrives on Netflix later this year, a release date for the second half (which has already been shot) has yet to be decided on. Snyder will, however, be releasing R-Rated cuts of both instalments down the line.
As for the Star Wars comparisons, Snyder confirmed in an interview with the site that Rebel Moon did indeed evolve from an idea he first pitched to Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy.
"I was in postproduction on Man of Steel," he recalls. "I had heard there were rumblings about possibly doing another three [Star Wars] movies at some point. My take was that, if you just let me have the IP, I’ll make this cool movie, and I won’t get in the way of anything that you guys are doing."
Ultimately, when Lucasfilm was acquired by Disney, both the filmmaker and the studio decided to move on from the concept. "I didn’t really have time to do a Star Wars movie," Snyder, who was busy working on the DCEU at the time, admits. "So it kind of worked out."
Rebel Moon is set to be released on Netflix on December 22, 2023.