How Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon Breaks The Kid-Friendly Rules Of Star Wars

It's been a well-know fact for decades that writer-director George Lucas always saw "Star Wars" as a series meant for kids. In fact, five of the nine films in the Skywalker saga earned a family-friendly PG rating, while the other four were rated PG-13.

According to Den of Geek, writer-director Zack Snyder originally pitched the story of his upcoming sci-fi epic "Rebel Moon" as a "Star Wars" spinoff film. Certainly, the foundation of "Rebel Moon" — about a new hope in a mysterious warrior named Kora (Sofia Boutella) who joins in a rise against tyranny — has a "Star Wars" feel about it, but the similarities from there feel few and "far, far" between.

One thing appears for certain, however: "Rebel Moon" is not intended to be a wholesome intergalactic space opera. "Zack told me, 'It's like 'Star Wars' but with violence, sex, and swearing,'" Ed Skrein — who plays the villainous Admiral Atticus Noble in "Rebel Moon" — told Den of Geek.

Judging "Rebel Moon" Ed Skrein's boilerplate description of the film via Zack Snyder, any kid-friendly conventions you've seen in "Star Wars" have been thrown out the window. On top of that, the action is bound to intensify since the film is broken up into two parts. In other words, don't expect any furry bear-like Ewoks or penguin-like Porgs to be introduced as the epic story of "Rebel Moon" progresses. Sure, the main narrative "Star Wars" certainly grew more serious as the saga unfolded, but the series always kept its sights focused on who the core audience members were.

"'Star Wars' fanbase basically aged with the movies, and then they had children that then also became fans of the movies, and their children had children who became fans of the movie," Snyder explained to Den of Geek. "I do understand the love of 'Star Wars,' how canonized it is ... and actually how immobile it is. That's why I'm here now doing 'Rebel Moon' the way I'm doing it, because we really have no rules except for the ones we make."

However, some of those rules appear to incorporate some very familiar principles. As such, Snyder's "Rebel Moon" has lightsaber-like weapons despite not being a "Star Wars" film, since Lucasfilm owns the copyright to the word "lightsaber" and not the concept of swords that use laser energy.

"Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire" debuts on Netflix December 22, 2023, while "Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver," is set to premiere on the streamliner April 19, 2024.