There’s a belief that the entirety of human history only contains a handful of stories that have ever been told, it’s just the way that people decide to tell them that makes them stand out from the pack. From the outside looking in, you can make the argument for Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon ticking that box.
The project initially began life as a Star Wars spin-off heavily indebted to Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, with the legendary Japanese filmmaker’s work cited by George Lucas as one of the main inspirations behind his own original sci-fi franchise. Things have come full circle and then some, with Netflix footing the bill for a two-part intergalactic epic that’s effectively Snyder using the inspirations behind the inspirations behind his own inspiration as a jumping-point.
It sounds confusing, but concept artist Mike Uwandi offered a much better and less twisted explanation in an interview with ScreenRant.
“I mean, tonally, it’s definitely an ode to some of the darker Star Wars tales, but it borrows from a lot more. I would say that from what we were able to see, even in the trailer, you can see that it’s not just referencing Star Wars, it’s referencing the things that Star Wars also referenced. So there’s a little bit more fantasy involved in that and it’s a lot more clear, whereas I almost feel like Star Wars does a good job at dusting off the trail a little bit, but that’s all I think I can say.”
Snyder was never going to outrun the Star Wars comparisons looking at where Rebel Moon came from to begin with, so embracing them and subverting them while acknowledging them all at once is the best course of action, because any negative reactions to the project are inevitably going to weaponize a galaxy far, far away as a stick to beat it over the head.