The Big Picture
Rebel Moon is an original IP that outgrew its Star Wars spinoff label, offering a unique exploration of a galaxy all its own. Djimon Hounsou and Staz Nair discuss their involvement in Zack Snyder’s space opera and his signature “balance of beauty and brutality.” The film features a stacked cast, including Charlie Hunnam and Anthony Hopkins, and offers a world-building reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings.
Zack Snyder has spent decades creating one of this year’s most anticipated two-part releases for Netflix, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire. What first started out as a mature addition to the Star Wars franchise soon outgrew its spinoff label and set out to become an entirely original IP that explores a galaxy all its own.
In Rebel Moon – Part One, war is on the horizon for the rural planet of Veldt, whose refusal to provide resources to the Imperium makes them a defenseless target against the ruthless Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee) and his callous Admiral Noble (Ed Krein). Having dealt with this vast army before, Kora (Sofia Boutella), a stranger who acclimated to the farming planet’s way of life, is tasked with locating fighters across the galaxy to lead a revolution.
In addition to Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Anthony Hopkins, and more, both Djimon Hounsou and Staz Nair play victims to the Imperium’s far-reaching reign of terror. In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, the duo discuss how they got involved with Snyder’s space opera, the director’s signature “balance of beauty and brutality,” and what it was like working with such a stacked cast. They also share details on Snyder’s vision while casting for Rebel Moon and what his massive world-building has in common with Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. Check it all out in the video above, or you can read the full transcript below.
Rebel Moon
When a peaceful settlement on the edge of a distant moon finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force, a mysterious stranger living among its villagers becomes their best hope for survival.
Release Date December 22, 2023
Director Zack Snyder
Studio Netflix
COLLIDER: First of all, I’ve got a million questions for you guys. I have to start with the most important question up front. I know that Zack watched a lot of Game of Thrones because he cast a lot of people from Game of Thrones in this movie. So really, I have to ask you, how did you get cast because you were not in Game of Thrones?
DJIMON HOUNSOU: [Laughs] How did I get cast? Well, here we come to find out that Zack has been working on this for almost a centuries.
STAZ NAIR: Almost as long as Game of Thrones.
HOUNSOU: Yes, for three decades he’s been working on this, and I get a call about Rebel Moon and I’m talking to him, and come to find out that it seems like we have worked together before. When he was still in film school, I used to go to that film school as a model, in my early days in California as a model, to pose for those film students. And so fast forward to, I guess three decades later, 33 years later, and here we are with Rebel Moon.
How the Beauty and Brutality of Zack Snyder’s ‘300’ Translates to ‘Rebel Moon’
Image via Warner Bros
If someone has never seen a Zack Snyder movie, besides Rebel Moon because everyone’s gonna watch Rebel Moon, what’s the one you think they should start with?
HOUNSOU: Well, I would always go to 300 I think.
NAIR: I think so, too.
HOUNSOU: I was always going to 300. 300 really marked me as an audience and also as an actor. The tremendous creative input in that film really spoke volumes to a lot of people in the world. It had such an impact, and so that would be the one I would pick.
NAIR: I would have to second that. I just remember he finds such a beautiful balance of beauty and brutality. What a fucking cool thing to achieve, you know what I mean? And also, you look at 300 and there’s [Michael] Fassbender, there’s [Gerard] Butler. A lot of the time with action movies, back in the day, we wouldn’t cast dramatic actors or stuff like that, and it’s wonderful to see a world where all these genres are colliding, where dramatic actors are taking their shot at action. And also he was one of the first people I remember being like, “Okay, he really takes physical aesthetics seriously.” That’s a real big part of his ethos in creating these warriors. “We’re not CGI-ing this stuff, you’re going to emulate that by personifying that physically.” And I think that that’s why I really love 300.
Zack Snyder’s World-Building Is a Throwback to ‘Lord of the Rings’
Jumping into Rebel Moon, what is something in Part One and Part Two that you cannot wait for audiences to see?
NAIR: In Part One I think Veldt. It features potentially even more in Part Two, but I think Veldt is such a physical feat to have achieved. Just for context, it’s three to five acres of really built village, a river that has been man-made by Zack mined into the desert. It reminds me of those big sets of Lord of the Rings and all that stuff. That is just such a beautiful thing to fall in love with, the romance of it. For Part Two, it’s our backstories. It’s an opportunity to really delve into the individual, the characters, how they intersect, why they’re really here. You really get a bit more of an overarching kind of feeling for all of the misfits.
HOUNSOU: I conquer.
[Laughs] For real, is there anything in both films?
HOUNSOU: Part Two has more to offer, I think, especially about each of our characters and how we come together against various obstacles and challenges, and how we all evolve out of that. And Part Two also, this is the genius of Zack, it’s no surprise that he went almost globally during his casting. Of course, Staz is half Russian and Indian, I, of course, am originally from West Africa, and literally the way he wrote the story, I could feel the geopolitical tentacles that have being holding the continent of Africa back for centuries. I could feel that coming off the page, Literally, I felt like, “He’s telling my story.” That said, and also the fact that I was cast and part of the requirement was for me to sing…but I’ll just leave it at that.
NAIR: Yeah, just wait to see. Part Two is more characters, more war. It’s beautiful. It’s the culmination, because that’s what we’re seeing, we’re watching the rise.
So with making this film, you shot for 153 days, it was like a marathon.
NAIR: It was 153 days, yeah.
HOUNSOU: Was it?
NAIR: 153 days. We capped out at about 140/130, you and I, but yeah.
The Cast of ‘Rebel Moon’ Became Comrades Throughout Production
Image via Netflix
Was there a night the night before filming that you’re actually a little bit nervous, like you’re in your head a little bit thinking, “How are we gonna do this tomorrow?”
HOUNSOU: Certainly. For me, the first day was like that. The first day of filming, which was the first day of filming for the entire film.
NAIR: Yeah, he opened us up.
HOUNSOU: So we did that shot, that was that first day of filming, and for me, it was also where I get discovered by the group. Pollux, that scene felt very greedy, and it was almost like a throwback from my Gladiator days.
NAIR: Yeah, sure, it must have been kind of bizarre. For myself, for starters, as much as I’ve been a working actor for a while, it’s very different sharing a screen with Djimon and Charlie and Sofia and Michiel and Ed and Anthony bloody Hopkins. I think if I started looking at it as a whole, it would overwhelm me. What I just did is I just focused on what I knew, which was the character, and what I understood, and I tried my best to trust the work I’ve been doing, and it paid off, I believe. But what really made that easier and put those nerves aside were just the humility of all these actors. It was a really eclectic bunch of people, different energy levels, different types of people, but we came together and all of that kind of fell to the wayside. We just became peers and we just became brothers and comrades against the tough 150-day slog.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is available to stream on Netflix.
Watch on Netflix