It’s been around six months since Zack Snyder unleashed the first half of his new sci-fi epic, Rebel Moon, but it’s felt like a lifetime. Netflix is unveiling the project with all the urgency of an IV drip; the streamer clearly wants to capitalize on Snyder’s infamous director’s cuts, so much so that it commissioned two versions of Rebel Moon. The first films (Snyder’s story was split into two installments) premiered in December 2023 and April 2024, but largely failed to garner much interest outside Snyder’s cult fandom. Still, a lackluster reception hasn’t stopped Netflix from plowing through with their oddball release plan, and the R-rated extended cuts of Rebel Moon are set to drop this summer.
Netflix made the announcement on X, sharing three yet-unseen stills from the “sexier, bloodier” director’s cuts. Snyder previously teased that the new versions would be completely different from the original cuts, and the two films will even have different subtitles. Part One: A Child of Fire’s extended cut will be called Chapter One: Chalice of Blood, followed by Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness. That certainly rolls off the tongue easier than Rebel Moon: Part One — A Child of Fire (Extended Edition), but that distinction could also be just the update this saga needs.
The Rebel Moon films have already endured plenty of scrutiny since their debut, and for good reason. Each installment, despite their bloated runtimes, felt like half a film. Key scenes seemed to lack the context audiences needed, while certain characters felt woefully incomplete. Anthony Hopkins’ warrior robot Jimmy, for example, had limited appearances, and the films’ original cuts don’t bother to explain his importance.
Other characters also feel robbed of proper development, and the relationships between characters were often rushed or truncated, perhaps because Netflix’s initial PG-13 mandate kept Snyder from leaning too hard into anyone’s sexuality. That will change in Rebel Moon’s hard-R cuts, as each extended version will add an hour of additional footage. Snyder even told The Associated Press that Chalice of Blood and Curse of Forgiveness will represent his fully realized vision.
“It’s almost like a different movie,” the filmmaker told AP last December. “It’s almost a different universe that [the R-rated cut] lives in ... it’s the fully realized weirdo, heavy metal, bizzaro-land movie.”
Snyder’s instinct to go all-in on worldbuilding is certainly on display in Rebel Moon. The extended cuts will flesh out the foundation built in A Child of Fire and The Scargiver, and hopefully they’ll give audiences more time to actually understand Snyder’s world. The “theatrical” versions of Rebel Moon feel more like a proof of concept, while the extended films will deliver the complete story. But will this version of the film actually be better? Probably, yeah, if only by default. If nothing else, it’ll offer some much-needed context. It may be too late to salvage Rebel Moon’s reputation, but at least we’ll have some idea of what the heck is going on in it.
