Rebel Moon is a lifelong passion project from Zack Snyder. It is an epic space opera he first conceived in 1997, drawing upon the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Star Wars, and other personal favourites to formulate its sweeping scope.
The first instalment arrived on Netflix in December 2023 and received mixed reviews despite going to the top of streamer’s weekly charts and the ensemble cast, which features Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Charlie Hunnam, and Anthony Hopkins. The sequel, The Scargiver, arrives on April 19th and sees protagonist Kora and her crew defend the farmers on Veldt against the Motherworld.
As The Scargiver verges on release, it has been revealed by one of the writers of the space opera, Kurt Johnstad – who co-wrote the screenplay with Snyder and Shay Hatten – that they have plans for six movies. It has an interesting spin though; each pair of films would be akin to an “installment” of what he mind-bendingly dubs a “trilogy”.
Johnstad revealed all when talking to ScreenRant, and noted that their plans have not officially been put to Netflix. He said: “We have everything mapped out for many, many movies. Beyond three. Beyond four. I will go on the record now. We’ve figured this out all the way to movie six. Now, if we are so lucky and fortunate enough to continue telling these stories, that is our hope. Netflix is interested, and we’re waiting to see how these first movies go. But there is certainly a treatment for three and four. We’ve laid out very detailed… All we have to do is start writing.”
He continued: “Actually, Zack has already started writing because he’s like that. I think he’s already written the first thirty pages of movie three. So once we get the green light to start writing, if that happens, it’ll happen fairly quickly because Shay (Hatten), Zack, and I are pretty fast. And we’ve done all the work. It’s not like, “Well, what about this.” We know exactly what we need to do.”
Johnstad explained that the trio attempted to trim the original 200-page script down but realised that they couldn’t take things out as they would affect the entire arc of the characters. “We tried cutting it back to one thirty-five,” he added. “And we started cutting all of the cool character stuff. And Zack’s like, we need to go back.”
That was why the plan to cut the first film in half morphed into each part of the “trilogy” potentially being split. We will see what happens after the sequel arrives later this week.
Watch the trailer for Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver below.
