Zack Snyder reveals first look at 'Star Wars'-esque Netflix epic 'Rebel Moon' as filming starts

Zack Snyder's knack for memorable visuals on a grand scale has finally led to a full-blown space opera. Last year, the filmmaker announced that his next project following the zombie action flick Army of the Dead would be Rebel Moon, a Star Wars-inspired sci-fi adventure with an all-star cast that will hopefully launch yet another franchise for the filmmaker.

We've been hearing about Rebel Moon on and off for the last nine months, particularly as the film has built a cast that includes the likes of Sofia Boutella, Ray Fisher, Djimon Hounsou, and Charlie Hunnam, to name just a few. Now, shooting on the space epic is officially underway. On Tuesday, Snyder celebrated Day One on the Rebel Moon set with a trio of photos posted to social media, including two behind-the-scenes shots of what looks like a spaceship ramp, and one black-and-white portrait of Hounsou looking like a warrior in a very ornate set out armor. 

Check out the images below:

Based on a Star Wars pitch that Snyder took to Lucasfilm a decade ago, Rebel Moon tells the story of a moon-based colony in the far reaches of space that falls under the thumb of a tyrant who seeks to subjugate the place. Outnumbered and outmatched, the colonists send a woman with a mysterious past out into space to look for reinforcements. If that sounds very Seven Samurai to you, that's because Snyder has always pinned the project on his love of both George Lucas and Lucas' own great inspiration, Akira Kurosawa.

“This is me growing up as an Akira Kurosawa fan, a Star Wars fan,” Snyder said when the project was announced. “It’s my love of sci-fi and a giant adventure. My hope is that this also becomes a massive IP and a universe that can be built out.”

Yes, like Army of the Dead before it, Rebel Moon is intended to launch a new universe of stories at its home base of Netflix, where Snyder and his collaborators can keep spinning off new films for years to come if audiences respond with enough passion. When the film was first announced, Snyder revealed that he'd spent years designing the look and feel of the universe in which Rebel Moon takes place, which means there's lots of raw material for what comes next. 

Rebel Moon does not yet have a release date, but its arrival comes at a particularly exciting time for science fiction adventures. While Snyder cooks up his series at Netflix, Sam Esmail's working on a Battlestar Galactica reboot over on Peacock, and Dean Devlin's crafting a new sci-fi saga dubbed The Ark at SYFY. It's a good time to be a fan of things with spaceships, apparently.