Rebel Moon’s “Snyder Cuts” Make No Sense After Netflix’s 2-Movie Release Plan

Director Zack Snyder has confirmed that there will be director’s cuts for the two upcoming Rebel Moon movies, but that doesn’t make any sense given that the project is already split into two parts. Rebel Moon is a cross between Star Wars, Dune, and the influential 1954 movie Seven Samurai. The upcoming sci-fi fantasy film follows a colony living on a moon that’s threatened by the army of a tyrannical dictator. The colony recruits the best mercenaries in the galaxy to help protect their home. With such an ambitious story and setting, Rebel Moon could easily become one of Netflix’s greatest projects to date.

Snyder has been working on Rebel Moon for years, and he originally envisioned it as a Star Wars movie. That comes as no surprise given the Star Wars influences throughout its trailer, which is full of epic space battles and even features a weapon that looks suspiciously like a lightsaber. The project is finally being released later this year, and it will be available to stream on Netflix. However, Rebel Moon is already running into a problem that is typical of Snyder, who seems to struggle with self-editing his projects.

Rebel Moon Has Directors Cuts – Despite Releasing In Two Parts

Rebel Moon is split into two movies, with Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire hitting Netflix in December 2023 and Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver coming out in April 2024. While the story is already spread across two films, Snyder envisioned Rebel Moon as much bigger — and longer. Snyder recently confirmed that he’ll release a director’s cut for each movie, but given that Rebel Moon is already being released in two parts, additional director’s cuts seem a bit excessive. It’s hard to imagine bonus content for a movie that has already been split into two being remotely necessary or worth releasing.

Given Snyder’s penchant for visuals and atmospheric shots that show off the world, the director’s cuts of Rebel Moon will likely be full of those kinds of moments. This could dramatically affect the movies’ pacing. Depending on how the story has been split in two, the pacing could already be in jeopardy, and more footage will only make it worse. Additionally, the two Rebel Moon movies are being released just five months apart. With more versions of the same films also coming out in that timeframe, audiences could become fatigued with the franchise before it properly begins. This is bad news for sequels, as Rebel Moon sets up more movies.

Snyder’s Explanation For Rebel Moon’s Directors Cut Makes No Sense

There are reasons Snyder decided to make a director’s cut of each Rebel Moon movie, the first of which is so that he can release both a PG-13 and an R-rated cut. Snyder’s producer and wife, Deborah Snyder, explained at a press event (via Slash Film), “I think both are really exciting, and they give us a chance to have my kids see one of them.” However, Rebel Moon is not being marketed as a kids’ movie or a family-friendly film, nor is Rebel Moon getting a wide release in theaters. Instead, it’s a very mature-looking project made for Netflix. As such, there’s no reason Rebel Moon couldn’t have been R-rated in the first place.

Snyder himself commented on the logic behind having two director’s cuts of Rebel Moon. The director said, “There’s a great history of director’s cuts that are just cool. When I was in film school, I just always thought that was cool, that there was this other movie that you could discover.” The filmmaker is ultimately invested in director’s cuts because his idols released director’s cuts. Sadly, there’s no logic behind that. Only a minority of director’s cuts are better than their original theatrical versions. In reality, most director’s cuts, including Snyder’s, are criticized for all the same reasons: they’re too long, too self-indulgent, and poorly paced.

Rebel Moon Shows The Problem With The Snyder Cut

Rebel Moon isn’t the first director’s cut that Snyder has released, as he famously came out with Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2021. The DC film wasn’t just a director’s cut. The 2021 iteration of Justice League had $70 million worth of new footage, which resulted in a four-hour film. Following the movie, Snyder is now releasing more director’s cuts that don’t seem necessary, and it hints that the director is increasingly losing his ability to self-edit. More footage and longer runtimes don’t equate to a better movie; in fact, they often lead to the opposite. Rebel Moon would likely have benefited from not having these additional versions detracting from its original release. Hopefully, it won’t ruin the movie’s chance at future sequels.