The Surprising 42-Year-Old Movie That Heavily Inspired Rebel Moon

Zack Snyder’s newest Netflix movie, Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire is drawing a lot of comparisons to Star Wars and Warhammer 40k, but it actually shares a lot more of its DNA with a somewhat obscure 1980s illustrated fantasy magazine and animated movie Heavy Metal.

Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire is a movie about a small farming community that recruits a team of warriors to help it defend against the might of the Imperium in a story strongly influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai with characters and aesthetics inspired by a number of other properties from Excalibur to Conan the Barbarian. Since George Lucas and Snyder share similar inspirations, Rebel Moon is being compared to Star Wars, but the actual biggest inspiration behind Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon is Heavy Metal.

How Heavy Metal Inspired Rebel Moon

Snyder attributes a lot of Rebel Moon’s style to Heavy Metal.

Heavy Metal was an adult illustrated fantasy magazine founded in 1977, the same year Star Wars was released. It didn’t follow any particular characters or plot, but was instead a collection of science fiction and fantasy comics featuring iconic writers and artists like Mobius, H.R. Giger, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Frank Frezetta, and more. There were two Heavy Metal animated movies, the more popular of which was released in 1981 and featured the voices of John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, and more. Heavy Metal magazine struggled in more recent years and finally shut down in July 2023. Snyder told Screen Rant Heavy Metal was a big influence on Rebel Moon.

Zack Snyder Almost Directed A Heavy Metal Show With James Cameron and David Fincher

At one point in 2008-2009, there was almost a third Heavy Metal movie produced by David Fincher and James Cameron. The movie would have been an anthology featuring eight or nine 3D animated segments, each from a different creator. At the time, Zack Snyder, Guillermo del Toro, Gore Verbinski, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman, and Tim Miller were all being considered to direct segments. The project never came to fruition, but Fincher and Miller would go on to produce a spiritual successor, Love, Death & Robots on Netflix.

Snyder never got to direct an actual Heavy Metal movie and has yet to participate in a season of Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots, but Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire to flex his Heavy Metal influence in a big way. Snyder’s Sucker Punch was also inspired by Heavy Metal, so it’s not the first time the magazine or animated movies have influenced his work, but with Rebel Moon, the movie’s logo and the poster of Kora riding the Benuu and holding up a sword (something that doesn’t even happen in the movie) are clear homages to Heavy Metal.