Zack Snyder’s epic space opera Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver is one of the most anticipated films of the year, with Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire already on Netflix and Part Two hitting the streaming giant later this week on April 19, 2024. The sprawling sci-fi saga, which Snyder originally pitched as a Star Wars film before turning it into an original IP, is poised to be the start of a major new franchise for Netflix, complete with spin-offs, sequels, an animated series, comic books and more. With an all-star cast including Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Anthony Hopkins, and Djimon Hounsou, Rebel Moon is looking to be one of Snyder’s most ambitious projects to date.
CGMagazine had the opportunity to sit down with the cast of Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver to discuss the experience of working on such an epic film and helping build a brand new cinematic universe from the ground up. The actors touched on the immense scale of the practical sets, costumes and visual effects and what it was like immersing themselves in Snyder’s richly detailed world. Throughout the interviews, one thing was immediately made clear: just how excited everyone is for the franchise and for fans to see the full concept come together finally.
How does it feel to be part of an epic new cinematic universe like Rebel Moon?
Fra Fee: I mean, what a thrill. Such a fan of Zack Snyder in general, and when I heard that he was creating this whole new universe of his own that came out of his imagination. The idea of being a part of it was genuinely really humbling and exciting. It’s been amazing to see the world come to light, for all of those green screens to be turned into these opulent, amazing, visceral scenes. It’s been as class as you would suspect.
Ed Skrein: Yeah, I just want to make a new IP. There are old IPs that I loved growing up with Ninja Turtles, ThunderCats, and all of this stuff are things I’ve loved forever. There are other franchises that would be interesting to be a part of, but I just wanna make a new IP. I want to be part of new things. In this age where you can’t remember how many times they’ve rebooted such things, and to be fair, I don’t want to bite the hand that feeds me.
I’ve emotionally and financially profited from these experiences of being part of them, but I just wanna do a new IP. So, to work with someone like Zack, and for it to be a completely new IP, the inner child is super happy.
Staz Nair: Yeah, I think, for starters, it’s as exciting as, in many ways, you could say, daunting. It’s a real privilege to be a part of something as adventurous and, as you said, at the cornerstone of its existence as this, but also, ultimately, we’re all fans and nerds. I speak for myself at least but, I think I can speak for all of us, it’s exciting in many ways, accessing a childhood dream.
How many of us dreamed of going into space, battling demons, being warriors, and saving worlds? I try to remind myself, however daunting or exciting or, apprehensive you might feel coming into something like this, that this is what dreams are made of, and to have fun when thinking about this and what’s capable.
Micheal Huisman: So exciting, especially to be part of the beginning of that. It’s amazing.
Sofia Boutella: Yeah. I mean, it’s exciting and it’s essentially fun.
The action sequences in Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver look intense. What was the most challenging aspect of filming physically?
Ed Skrein: Physically, it was probably the sliding stuff at the end that Fra endearingly calls the Titanic moment. We both wish the violinist was sliding down with Gunnar (Michiel Huisman). Yeah, probably that because it just took so many hours to prepare for and it was very tough on the body. Even when we shot it, I’d have to run up to it every time to reset. Titanic, what a great movie. I remember it so well when it first came out.
Fra Fee: The interesting thing is that me and Ed had one scene together. It was Ed’s last and my first. We absolutely passed the baton on to each other. I shot for the last six weeks of the film shoot, and Balisarius’ (Fra Fee) world is very controlled, opulent, collected, mannered, right-angled and organized.
I didn’t get to do a lot of the sort of really fun action stuff. Of course, there’s a wonderful scene in [Rebel Moon] Part Two that’s pretty brittle and action-based, but we sort of existed in different worlds in a way, even though we were obviously so connected. I was in awe of all of the action that these guys managed to do. It was unreal.
Sofia Boutella: What was challenging physically? I don’t know… Okay, it was the gun. It was holding the gun.
Micheal Huisman: He meant some sort of cool stunt. You’re just holding the gun.
Sofia Boutella: For me, that’s what was challenging.
Micheal Huisman: Just holding it was hard?
Sofia Boutella: Okay, I don’t like guns, so I’m just going to put it that way. That’s why it was challenging. But for me, playing someone who has been at war for most of her life, holding a gun and making it look like she’s done that for this long was hard because I’ve danced for most of my life. I feel like, not to be arrogant or an idiot, but I feel like I could get to the physical choreography of a fight quicker than looking like I’ve held a gun my entire life.
So because of certainty, when you see it at the end of movie number one [Rebel Moon — Part One], I’m running with the gun, and I was terrified by that scene because when soldiers run with a gun, they keep it steady, everything else moves, and I was terrified of being a mess and just swinging the gun side to side, and I just wanted it to look strong. I’m happy I spent so much time with Freddy Bouciegues, who’s directing us in the whole stunt team and he’s good with the gun.
It’s all about you have to tuck your elbow when you’re not shooting, your index is laying flat, and it’s never on the trigger, and you know you’re not holding a real gun, and you know it’s a movie, but I wanted it to look as sensitive as if it was a real gun because it’s real.
Micheal Huisman: Well, you pulled it off.
Sofia Boutella: Thank you. But I was challenged by that.
Micheal Huisman: Looks pretty strong.
Sofia Boutella: Thank you. But I did all this training where I had to just be on the floor, roll, run, get to the floor, get back up. This was hard for me. It was really hard.
Staz Nair: I think our bridge scene.
Djimon Hounsou: Yeah, the bridge scene was quite challenging, given the fact that we were prepared for this scene differently than how it came about. On the day of, we just had to learn how to execute this fight sequence
Staz Nair: In 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius).
Djimon Hounsou: It was quite rewarding to film this, the way we did, you know in six, seven, eight months, back to back like that. I find it quite rewarding as an actor to be able to tap into that world for that long.
Staz Nair: Yeah, I agree.
Djimon Hounsou: And for the second part to resonate the way it did for us. I was quite anticipating seeing the second part.
Staz Nair: Yeah, I totally second what he said. The reward. It reflects. There are a couple of times in the second movie when you hear Djimon scream gutturally, and that was, I think, in so many ways, relief of getting through it again, and getting it right, and doing it in that heat.
Djimon Hounsou: Well, that came with a lot of frustration. Frustration that you were holding and trying as you went through the battle, you got to the end of that battle, sort of like sounded.
Staz Nair: Yeah, exactly that.
Djimon Hounsou: And so that scream emulates all that.
Staz Nair: It wasn’t unscripted. We just did it. In the end, we just kept doing it.
Elise Duffy: I mean even the physical labour we had to do, we were reaping wheat for hours in the hot sun.
Djimon Hounsou: Wow, that day we sweat so much.
Staz Nair: Actors fainted. We had people fainting. Ambulances had to be there. There’s a lot of people. No, it’s not glamorous. It’s a ton of fun, and it’s a dream to be on these worlds, but ultimately, it’s hot, and we’re not faking it.
Elise Duffy: Yeah, we didn’t have cell service either.
Staz Nair: No cell service. I’m calling my agent right now. Part 3, there better be cell service.
The scale of the sets, costumes, and visual effects seem immense in Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. What was it like coming to set each day, and what wowed you the most about Rebel Moon?
Ed Skrein: To be honest, the sets on location were pretty amazing, like going on to Veldt. It was in Santa Clarita in Northern California. I can’t remember. Was it the blue? Blue something? Blue clouds etched in my mind. PTSD.
42 degrees (Celsius), heat in the suit out there, but the dust, the real wheat fields and the real huts and everything, that was amazing. The sets that were built in the studio. The Toa sets were amazing, and the spaceship was spectacular. When I would see all of my soldiers, all of our soldiers, I would just be like, wow, and intimidated. The priests, especially that scene with Sindri (Corey Stoll), the opening of [Rebel Moon] Part One.
I was just thinking about Sindri the whole time and having this affable conversation with Sindri as we walked up the hill. Every now and then, we’d cut, and I’d look around, and I’d see an army behind me and priests, and I’d think, oh yeah, I forgot they were there because I made a conscious effort or decision at the beginning. I don’t look. I don’t even see my soldiers. I don’t see them. I don’t look at them. It was funny to turn around and look at them. That was a trip.
Micheal Huisman: I think that we were probably on smaller days, we were probably with four or 500 people on set. Hundreds of people and a crew—it’s massive. It’s a big area, and we built entire villages, and the scope of it all impressed me every day when I arrived.
Sofia Boutella: Yeah, the size of it all. Also, we had an entire village, a real-sized village that unveiled, that was real, and Zack exploded the entire village. We came back to the set one day, and they showed us the footage where a bomb exploded out of the buildings, and the village was truly destroyed, just exactly as in the film. I think that when you film real explosions like that, we had a helicopter to create all these winds, and it was just incredibly immersive. Felt real to us.
Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver premieres on Netflix on April 19, 2024.
