Summary
- Rebel Moon director Zack Snyder confirms a crossover between Rebel Moon and Army of the Dead, revealing that a character from Rebel Moon appears in the Army of the Dead animated series.
- The crossover suggests a shared universe between the two franchises, despite their different tones, genres, and narrative beats.
- The Army of the Dead animated series, titled Lost Vegas, was never finished, but scripts, animatics, and voice recordings were completed, allowing fans to watch it in its animatic form. The fate of the series remains uncertain.
Rebel Moon director Zack Snyder revealed that the new expansive world he's built based on Geroge Lucas' Star Wars galaxy has some intersection with his Army of the Dead franchise.
Initially starting as Snyder's idea for a more mature Star Wars film set in the familiar galaxy far, far away, Rebel Moon would become a standalone project after new Lucasfilm owners Disney declined to take Snyder up on the idea and Warner Bros. Passed on it as well. After this, Snyder resolved to make a franchise himself, mirroring the making of Star Wars and finding a home for the project with Netflix. While the franchise was always destined to live on the streamer, a limited theatrical release has been promised.
Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon Director's Cuts Won't Be What Fans May Expect
Netflix supported Zack Snyder with a Rebel Moon Director's Cut from the beginning, which makes it designed for more than a few extra scenes.
While the Rebel Moon Netflix film is only the beginning of Snyder's plans for the franchise, recent comments from the director confirm that his plans extended beyond this one franchise. Speaking to Total Film in a recent interview, Snyder revealed a planned crossover between Rebel Moon and Army of the Dead, the post-apocalyptic zombie heist film that Snyder released in select theatres in 2021 before it landed on Netflix . "Army of the Dead has a pretty vast mythology that never made it into the movie,” Snyder revealed. "There’s actually a character from Rebel Moon in the Army of the Dead animated series that we never did." Snyder then provided details on the scene that never was.
At one point in the show, they go through a portal into another dimension, and there are characters in that other dimension that they come across. In Rebel Moon, they’re in this bar, and one of the aliens is one of the characters from the animatic. So it’s definitely a shared universe.
The show in question, Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, was supposed to be released on Netflix after Army of the Dead and the prequel film titled Army of Thieves. However, it was never finished despite the first film being met with mostly positive reviews and most work on the animated project being done, according to Snyder. “We did all the scripts and the animatics, and all the voices are recorded. So you could watch it, even in its crazy animatic form – you can watch the whole run.” The anime-inspired series would have been a treat for fans of the films and was something anticipated within Snyder's fanbase in a similar vein to the Rebel Moon co-op game he announced.
Falling neatly into the list of reasons why Snyder's Rebel Moon looks like too much and not enough, it is genuinely perplexing why the two franchises would cross over, as they lack a shared tone, genre, or even narrative beats. While the revelation will likely have a small group of fans frothing at the mouth, the general audience is far more likely to forget the entire thing was mentioned. It's possible that if Snyder is attempting to gauge interest from his more vocal supporters, this revelation could help get the Army of the Dead series back on track.
However, any fans of the franchises in question will have much more significant concerns, such as if the planned sequel film Planet of the Dead will ever actually happen and the impending debut of the first Rebel Moon film. How well these more pressing matters will be resolved is still anyone’s guess, but both must work out for the crossover to properly manifest.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is set for limited theatrical release on December 15, 2023, and to join Army of the Dead and Army of Thieves on Netflix on December 22, 2023.
Rebel Moon
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- December 22, 2023
- Runtime
- 134 minutes
- Director
- Zack Snyder
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.
Source: Total Film