Rebel Moon’s Ed Skrein Reveals His Comic Book Passions

Before showing up in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon franchise, Ed Skrein became a fan-favorite among geeks with his villainous turn in Deadpool. Since then, he has stayed relevant with roles in the second Maleficent movie and in Alita Battle Angel. During his recent chat with ComicBook.com in support of Rebel Moon, he joked that we should “clear the next hour so we can talk about comics,” then went on to detail his passion for the medium, some of what he’s reading now, and his favorite creators.

Sofia Boutella, who was in on the chat, also chimed in to say that Zack Snyder’s passion for classic Heavy Metal magazines has her eager to check that one out. Skrein noted that something he loves about comics is how wildly different things can be, and still fall under the shared umbrella of comic books. 

“Right now I’m reading a lot of dark stuff and noir stuff,” Skrein told us. “I just want to the comic con in London, and when we were in the comic con in Sao Paolo promoting this, people couldn’t believe that I buy tickets myself and just go as a fan to the comic con in London. I take my kids and all my friends. I’ve got a huge comic book collection, man. I’m a huge Grant Morrison fan, Jeff Lemire. Actually Jeff Lemire, I’ve gone way deep into him in the last year, and while I was shooting this, I was just going through all of the Jeff Lemire collections. It’s a big part of my life.”

“I’m reading one called Flesh and Bone, which I got at a comic con in London, which is an independent publication which is set in Scotland, which is an interesting one,” Skrein added. “The cool thing about it is getting to the independent ones. The big ones are amazing, obviously, but that’s where it’s at for me. I’d say I read more Image than any other publisher.”

Rebel Moon is set in a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy that finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius. They dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them take a stand the Tyrant.

Eric Newman, who produced Snyder’s take on Dawn of the Dead in 2004, will produce this film, too. Ironically, Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead was written by James Gunn, whose Guardians of the Galaxy generated dozens of think-pieces linking him to, and eventually asking him about, new Star Wars that might be in his future. For Gunn, the idea didn’t hold any appeal, as he said he would rather create stories from the ground up…which is kind of what Snyder is now doing.

Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire is set for release on Netflix on December 22.