Empire 417

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***Empire*** featured *Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire* and *Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver* in its **August 2023** issue. The issue was released on July 6, 2023, and *Empire* subscribers received a variant cover with an illustration of Jimmy by Paul Shipper. *Empire* also released several articles on their website leading up to the issue's release.

## Articles

### "Rebel Moon"

The featured article of the issue is eight-pages of *Rebel Moon* written by Chris Hewitt and feturing exclusive behind-the-scenes photos and movie stills. The article covers the film's origins as a *Star Wars* pitch during the sale of the franchise to Disney. An R-rated movie set in a separate location with none of the known characters of the *Star Wars* franchise seemed to be a non-starter, especially as the next chapter was yet to be defined.

In May of 2023, *Empire* visited the Stone Quarry post-production office in Pasadena, where Dody Dorn and Marcus Taormina were working on the movie with the rest of the post-production crew. They talked with director Zack Snyder about the *Dirty Dozen* and *Seven Samurai* influences along with the *Star Wars* pitch, which Snyder was happy to drop and convert into his own universe, especially after his experiences with his DC Extended Universe projects. Playing with other peoples' toys can be restrictive.

Hewitt mentions visiting the *Rebel Moon* set in August 2022, particularly noting Sofia Boutella's board of sticky notes. The board covered Kora's arc through the two movies, separated by color for action, backstory, and montage. At one point, Snyder considered doing *Rebel Moon* as a TV series, but thought it sounded exhausting digging that deeply into everything, considering it may take a decade. They also planned to release the second part within days of the first, though ultimately decided, partially out of necessity, that they would be months apart, instead. The gap would likely be bridged with other The Stone Quarry projects, such as *Twilight of the Gods* and *Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas*.

*Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire* is the recruitment movie and *Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver* is the war movie, but they're both action-packed. They're backed up by a 450-page bible of backstories upon backstories. The two-movie arc will feature nine worlds. The article gives overviews of Kai, Darrian Bloodaxe, Milius, Jimmy, and Titus and their respective actors' thoughts on portraying them.

*Dawn of the Dead*, *Army of the Dead*, and Snyder's DC trilogy were mentioned for their emotional scenes to compare the shorter bursts of those movies to the longer emotional arcs of the *Rebel Moon* movies. Several other details were revealed, including the existence of a ship powered by a trans-dimensional being, Sam's daisy chain moment with Jimmy, and Bloodaxe's four-foot gun. After the first two movies, there's no bottom to the potential of the *Rebel Moon* franchise. *Empire* saw plans for a Balisarius prequel series and a third *Rebel Moon* movie featuring Vanna, the "rebel moon" of the franchise's name.

### "Men of Steel"

"Men of Steel" was a sidebar presented at the end of the main "Rebel Moon" article. Featuring illustrations of the robots from *Sucker Punch*, Ray Fisher's Cyborg from *Zack Snyder's Justice League*, and one of the sentinels from *Army of the Dead* by Bill McConkey, the small article described each of these characters in relation to Jimmy, the newest Snyderbot. The article was written by Dan Jolin.

## Tie-in articles

The following articles were released by *Empire* leading up to the full issue's release.

* "Zack Snyder Offers A Fresh Look At Sci-Fi Film Rebel Moon In New Featurette". *Empire*. Archived from the original on June 21, 2023. Retrieved on June 17, 2023. “The isolated woman, who has her own past with the Imperium, knows that it would be foolish to try and negotiate a better deal with the powerful government, so she rounds up some fighters who could be of use against the might of the enemy.”
* Ben Travis. "Empire's World-Exclusive Rebel Moon Covers Revealed". *Empire*. Archived from the original on June 30, 2023. Retrieved on June 30, 2023. “Inside, we dig into the film's (or, films', since at least two more are confirmed to be on the way) array of mysterious characters. . .”
* Ben Travis. "Zack Snyder's Sci-Fi Epic Rebel Moon Is 'An Accumulation Of Everything He's Done Thus Far' – Exclusive Images". *Empire*. Archived from the original on June 1, 2023. Retrieved on June 1, 2023. “'I feel like this movie is an accumulation of everything he's done thus far,' producer Deborah Snyder tells *Empire* in our world-exclusive *Rebel Moon* cover feature. 'There's so much to it, and so much thought in the production design and the languages and the characters.'”
* Ben Travis. "Rebel Moon: Anthony Hopkins' Robot Jimmy Is 'On A Journey Of Self-Discovery' In Zack Snyder's Sci-Fi Story – Exclusive Image". *Empire*. Archived from the original on July 5, 2023. Retrieved on July 2, 2023. “I was thinking about him, and how Milius [another hero, played by E. Duffy and named after Conan The Barbarian writer-director John Milius, as well as filmmaker Mike Mills] is Percival.”
* Ben Travis. "Why Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon Didn't Become A Star Wars Movie: 'I Knew It Was A Big Ask' – Exclusive Image". *Empire*. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved on June 3, 2023. “'I knew it was a big ask, to be honest,' he says of making the film within the *Star Wars* galaxy. 'But the deeper I got into it, I realised it was probably never going to be what I wanted.'”
* Ben Travis. "Zack Snyder Has Endless Movie And TV Plans For Rebel Moon: 'We Can't Really Hit The Bottom' – Exclusive". *Empire*. Archived from the original on July 3, 2023. Retrieved on July 3, 2023. “The rebel moon is not the moon that they're on. The title was conceptual, but there's a planet named Vanna, and Vanna is the rebel moon. It's not even in one shot of this movie!”
* Chris Hewitt. "World Building: On Set Of Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon". *Empire*. Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved on June 6, 2023. “It started off as a *Star Wars* pitch. But now, with *Rebel Moon*, Zack Snyder has a sprawling sci-fi saga of his own. We meet him on set and beyond to talk about a brand-new space odyssey.”