Rebel Moon: New Images From Zack Snyder's Netflix Movie Released

Ahead of the film's release, the latest issue of Empire magazine has a few new looks at Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon Part One, the long-awaited Netflix space opera that began its life as a Star Wars pitch that Snyder put together years ago. It's easy to see this as an extension of the Army of the Dead concept, where Snyder took something he was interested in and, rather than trying to get the rights to do something in-universe, decided to made the Zack Snyder version instead. The film, which stars Sofia Boutella, Ray Fisher, Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Jena Malone, Anthony Hopkins, and Ed Skrein, is expected to hit Netflix in December.

Empire has released a pair of photos, the first of one of the movie's spaceships against a field of explosions, and the second a shot of Jimmy, an android voiced by Anthony Hopkins who Snyder expects to be a breakout character from the film. 

You can see the photos below.

"Jimmy, I see him as a wild card," Snyder told Empire. "He's on a journey of self-discovery." And it really is one heck of a journey. Jimmy was brought to the peaceful planet of Veldt by the Imperium – the nefarious force hoping to demand all of Veldt's precious resources, and who get more than they bargained for when the planet assembles a handful of hardened warriors to fight back. (Yes, the inspiration is Seven Samurai.) Once upon a time, Jimmy was one of many identical 'droids assembled to serve their king in war. Now, he's been repurposed by the Imperium to do their literal heavy-lifting – and he's set to undergo a significant transformation over the course of Rebel Moon Part One and Two.

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.