Rebel Moon Star Teases R-Rated Snyder Cut: “We’ve Never Seen Anything Like It”

There won’t need to be a social media movement to see the director’s cut of Zack Snyder’s latest movie. Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire was released on Netflix as a PG-13 sci-fi movie, but Snyder’s complete vision was for a much more violent, R-rated film. Netflix allowed him to bring that version to life, only in the form of a director’s cut, which will come out sometime in the future. According to Rebel Moon star Ed Skrein, fans are in for a treat when the darker version of the film eventually debuts on Netflix.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Skrein opened up about the upcoming Snyder Cut of Rebel Moon‘s first installment, teasing something darker than people might be expecting.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember anyone ever doing this before, especially shooting two different movies and a PG-13 and a R-rated version. Knowing what we shot for the R-rated version, Zack and Netflix did an incredible job of putting together the PG-13 version,” Skrein said. “So it was always an interesting proposition to see what they did with the PG-13 cut, and I was really pleased. I feel like it’s a really strong piece, but the shadow of the Snyder Cut looms large. My son is 12 years old, and he came to the London premiere and loved it. I also brought my godson, my nephew and his best mate, and they loved it, because [the PG-13 cut] is really for that demographic. I feel it has the potential to be something seminal for that demographic. But the R-rated version, the Snyder cut, ‘the extended cut,’ as we’re supposed to call it, has the potential to be something seminal for the older generation.”

“When I watch something, I just want to see something new. I don’t need to love something. I don’t need to find it perfect. I can see flaws in it, whether it’s a painting, a song or a film, but if it’s new, then I come away and say, ‘Wow, that was great. That made me feel something.’ So you’re going to see something f—ing new in that R-rated cut, and we’ve never seen anything like it,” the actor continued. “We’ve seen Lars von Trier push cinema to the edges. We’ve seen Saw and Hostile and all those kinds of movies push violence quite far for a commercial entity, and of course, we’ve seen what we did with Deadpool. That film pushed the superhero genre to another place, but there was still comedy involved in that. But this s–t is not funny. This is f—ed-up empires in space and evil human nature evolving and playing out on an intergalactic level. It’s hardcore.”

Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver

In addition to a director’s cut, Rebel Moon is also getting a sequel. The second movie was filmed alongside the first and is set to released on Netflix in April. 

According to Snyder, Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver leans much more into the tragedies and violence of war.

“Part Two is a war movie,” Snyder told EW. “We know that Noble’s alive and Belisarius has given him the task of finding his daughter and bringing her back to him at all costs. So the stakes have risen for the village from ‘hey, we want some of your grain’ to now ‘you’re harboring the most wanted fugitive in the history of the galaxy.’”

“It was fun to plan the battle and try to figure out how Kora and the village could stand a chance against a world-destroying spacecraft,” the director added.