Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire

Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is an upcoming American epic space opera film directed by Zack Snyder from a screenplay he co-wrote with Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten, based on a story Snyder also created. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Michiel Huisman, Djimon Hounsou, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Cleopatra Coleman, Jena Malone, Fra Fee, Ed Skrein, and Anthony Hopkins.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is scheduled for a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 15, 2023, before its streaming debut a week later, on December 22, by Netflix. Its successor, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, is scheduled to be released on April 19, 2024.
== Plot ==
Atticus Noble, the sadistic admiral of the militaristic Imperium, arrives on the backwater moon of Veldt on behalf of the Motherworld, an interstellar empire fueled by centuries of conquest and war. He explains that his troops are hunting for a band of rebels led by siblings Devra and Darrian Bloodaxe, and offers to buy the village's surplus grain. The village's leader, Sindri, refuses the offer, claiming they barely have enough to survive. A farmer, Gunnar, ignores earlier warnings from Sindri and farmer Kora and indicates that the village might have some surplus. Noble kills Sindri and orders Gunnar to prepare grain for them in ten weeks, which would not leave the village with enough to survive. Noble departs, leaving a handful of soldiers and a "Jimmy" robot to oversee the harvest. After being harassed by a peer, Jimmy starts to become independent. One villager, Kora, finds the other soldiers holding another villager hostage, preparing to rape her, and kills them with help from Jimmy, who has defected from the soldiers. Kora warns the villagers that Noble will massacre the village once he returns, unless they mount a defense.
Kora and Gunnar depart for the port town of Providence to recruit warriors for the village's defense, including Titus, a disgraced Imperium general. During their journey, she reveals to Gunnar that she once served the Imperium as a soldier, having been adopted and renamed to Arthelais by Balisarius, an Imperium commander, after he killed her family and eradicated her home planet's population. She became bodyguard to Motherworld princess Issa, who was expected to usher in an end to the Imperium's conquests. She was unable to protect Issa during her coronation, when the royal family was assassinated, and Balisarius subsequently declared himself regent before renewing its conquests.
Arriving at Providence, the pair meets smuggler and criminal Kai, who agrees to take them to recruit Titus. On the way, Kai takes them to two additional warriors: Tarak, a beast tamer, and Nemesis, a talented swordswoman enhanced by cybernetics. The group arrives at a gladiator arena on a remote moon, finding Titus in a drunken stupor. Titus initially refuses but agrees to join them after Kora suggests that he avenge his fallen soldiers. Using Gunnar's previous dealings with the Bloodaxes, they then arrive at planet Sharaan to meet them and their rebellion, intending to recruit them. Darrian agrees to defend the village and brings with him a handful of rebels, including Milius, while Devra and the rest of the rebellion leave Sharaan. After they depart Sharaan, Noble arrives and eradicates its population as punishment for assisting the rebels.
Kai tells Kora that he has been moved by her quest to abandon his illicit life as a smuggler and that he has one last shipment to drop off to leave that life behind him. He takes the group to a trading post at which Noble's ship has arrived and restrains them save for Gunnar, betraying them to Noble and revealing he had always intended to do so for the bounties on their heads. Noble identifies Kora, Tarak, Nemesis and Titus for their history: Kora and Titus as deserters, Tarak as a criminal and former prince, and Nemesis as the killer of several Imperial officers in revenge for her murdered children. Kai demands that Gunnar paralyze Kora; Gunnar instead frees her and kills Kai. The other warriors are unshackled as well. Darrian is killed in the ensuing battle and Kora kills Noble. Afterwards, the surviving warriors return to Veldt together, with Jimmy watching them from afar on their way to the village.
Noble's corpse is recovered by Motherworld forces, and he is resurrected after having spoken on an astral plane with Balisarius, who demands that Noble end the insurgency against him and bring Kora to him alive so he can execute her himself.
== Cast ==
* Sofia Boutella as Kora, a former member of the Imperium who rallies warriors from across the galaxy to fight against the Motherworld.
* Djimon Hounsou as General Titus, former general of the Imperium recruited to lead the fight against the Motherworld.
* Charlie Hunnam as Kai, a mercenary and starship pilot hired by Kora.
* Michiel Huisman as Gunnar, a farmer and friend of Kora who joins her.
* Staz Nair as Tarak, a former nobleman turned blacksmith with the ability to bond with animals of nature and rally them in combat who is recruited by Kora.
* Doona Bae as Nemesis, a cyborg swordmaster recruited by Kora.
* Ray Fisher as Darrian Bloodaxe, a warrior recruited by Kora. He works alongside his sister Devra, the two of them leading an insurgent group that fights against the Imperium.
* Cleopatra Coleman as Devra Bloodaxe, Darrian's sister recruited by Kora.
* E. Duffy as Millius, a refugee warrior recruited by Kora.
* Dustin Ceithamer as Jimmy, the last member of a race of mechanical knights that served under the fallen king, recruited by Kora.
** Anthony Hopkins provides the voice of Jimmy.
* Jena Malone as Harmada, a lethal spider warrior terrorizing the mining village of Daggus.
* Ed Skrein as Admiral Atticus Noble, Balisarius' right-hand man, a high-ranking enforcer of the Motherworld and leader of the Imperium army.
* Fra Fee as Regent Balisarius, a tyrannical ruler of the Imperium and high-ranking member of the Motherworld.
* Ingvar Sigurdsson as Hagen, friend of Kora.
* Charlotte Maggi as Sam, a kind and hard-working farm girl, who warmly welcomes any outsiders that come to her village.
* Stuart Martin in to-be-confirmed role
* Corey Stoll in to-be-confirmed role
* Cary Elwes in to-be-confirmed role
* Alfonso Herrera in to-be-confirmed role
* Rhian Rees in to-be-confirmed role
* Ray Porter in to-be-confirmed role
== Production ==
=== Development ===
Rebel Moon is inspired by the works of Akira Kurosawa, the Star Wars films and Heavy Metal magazines. The film's logo is a homage to the adult science fiction and fantasy anthology. The film also began development as "Seven Samurai in space" during Zack Snyder's time in college, which he later pitched to Lucasfilm as a potential Star Wars project shortly after the sale of Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. This pitch was to be a more mature take on the Star Wars universe, but his wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder, was relieved the deal fell through so that it could return to its status as an original project without the constraints of existing IP. Snyder also pitched the idea as both a video game and a film to Warner Bros. Pictures "a couple of times". Following the Lucasfilm acquisition, the project was redeveloped by producer Eric Newman and Snyder, first as an original television series, before settling on a film by Netflix.
=== Casting ===
On November 2, 2021, it was announced that Sofia Boutella had been cast in the film, in the lead role. On February 9, 2022, Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Ray Fisher, Jena Malone, Staz Nair and Doona Bae joined the cast. Later that month, Stuart Martin and Rupert Friend joined the project. On April 8, 2022, Cary Elwes, Corey Stoll, Michiel Huisman and Alfonso Herrera joined the cast. On May 16, 2022, it was announced that Ed Skrein had replaced Friend as the film's main antagonist due to scheduling conflicts, with Cleopatra Coleman, Fra Fee and Rhian Rees joining the project. On June 8, 2022, it was announced that Anthony Hopkins had joined the cast as the voice of Jimmy, an impossibly sentient JC1435 mechanized battle robot and one-time defender of the slain king.
=== Filming ===
Filming commenced on April 19, 2022, with Snyder sharing the first images from the set on Twitter that day. Snyder also served as cinematographer. It ran until December 2, with 152 days of filming taking place in California, to tap into $83 million in qualified spending and tax incentives.
=== Post-production ===
On August 20, 2023, the titles for the two parts were reported to be A Child of Fire and The Scargiver, respectively. Two days later, Snyder appeared at gamescom opening night to present the teaser trailer for both parts. The trailer, which was also released online, confirmed that the first and second parts of Rebel Moon would be given their respective subtitles of Part One: A Child of Fire and Part Two: The Scargiver.
== Music ==
In January 2023, Tom Holkenborg was revealed to be composing the score. The film is Holkenborg's fifth direct collaboration with Snyder, following Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) and Army of the Dead (2021), and his sixth overall, counting the Snyder-produced 300: Rise of an Empire (2014).
== Release ==
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is scheduled for a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 15, 2023, before its streaming debut on December 22, a week later, by Netflix. Snyder revealed that the film will have an R-rated extended cut, in addition to its original PG-13-rated cut.
== Future ==
=== Part Two: The Scargiver and further sequels ===
On February 9, 2022, it was revealed that Rebel Moon would be a two-part film, with both parts originally planned to be shot back-to-back. On August 22, the follow-up was confirmed and, in August 2023, was revealed to be titled Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, with a scheduledrelease date of April 19, 2024. In April 2023, it was revealed that the first part was planned to be the beginning of a trilogy.
In November 2022, Snyder has expressed the possibility of a "trilogy of sequels".
=== Other media ===
Speaking of the film's future as a franchise, Snyder said that his "hope is that this also becomes a massive IP and a universe that can be built out."
In March 2023, Snyder revealed that a role-playing video game based on Rebel Moon was in development, alongside an animated short and a graphic novel. A novelization of the film written by V. Castro will be published by Titan Books on December 26, 2023. In July 2023, Snyder revealed that he had plans for a TV series focusing on Balisarius.
In August 2023, Snyder announced at Gamescom that Super Evil Megacorp was developing a four-player co-op action game that would be exclusively available on the Netflix Games platform. In September 2023, Evil Genius Games sued Netflix for terminating a deal that allowed them to produce a tabletop role-playing game set in the Rebel Moon universe.
A four-issue prequel comic entitled Rebel Moon: House of the Bloodaxe by writer Magdalene Visaggio and artist Clark Bint will be published by Titan Comics in January 2024. Set five years before the events of the film, the comic depicts backstory for the characters of Devra and Darrian Bloodaxe, leaders of a band of outlaw revolutionaries.
In November 2023, a narrative podcast, an animated comic book and an animated series, all set before the films, were announced to be in the works. The animated short is set to tell the story of the Kali, the "shadowy figures" who power the Motherworld's "most dangerous technology".
== External links ==
{{Infobox_film
|name = Rebel Moon �
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