See Zack Snyder’s Replacement For The Villain Of His Failed Star Wars Movie
Zack Snyder is currently filming his new Star Wars space epic, and he has revealed who has been chosen as the new villain of the film.
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It looks like the Zack Snyder retooled Star Wars script has a bit of a casting shakeup. While Rupert Friend was originally on to play the villain in the upcoming Rebel Moon, scheduling conflicts are putting Ed Skrein in the role instead. Rebel Moon will continue Zack Snyder’s fruitful relationship with Netflix, as the director and streaming giant has shared the success of Army of the Dead and the upcoming spin-offs, prequels, and sequels.
Rebel Moon is a sci-fi epic about a young emissary who is sent to other planets to assemble an army to fight back the armies of the tyrannical regent Balisarius. The movie was pitched by Zack Snyder around ten years ago as a more adult-oriented entry to the Star Wars canon. When the family-friendly Disney acquired the IP, the plans were shelved. Now the script has been reworked as an original IP. Ed Skrein will be playing the previously mentioned Balisarius. In a classic case of Hollywood coincidence, Rupert Friend will be playing a villain in the actual Star Wars universe, as the Grand Inquisitor in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series for Disney+. While this might not necessarily be the cause of his scheduling conflicts, it would be a little ironic that the villain of a re-skinned Star Wars movie is now playing the villain in a real Star Wars show. However, Obi-Wan Kenobi is premiering next week, so Friend is probably done filming all those episodes. It’s more likely that his role in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is interfering.
While Zack Snyder is a Star Wars fan and he likely would have liked to see the original pitch come to fruition, it seems like having your own movie is a pretty nice consolation prize. Rebel Moon has a stacked cast too, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all comes together. In addition to the newly cast Ed Skrein, the movie will also star Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Jena Malone, Michiel Huisman, Cary Elwes, Alfonso Herrera, Corey Stoll, Djimon Hounsou, and more. In addition to Skrein, Cleopatra Coleman, Fra Fee, and Rhian Rees are recently announced additions to the cast. Though Netflix and Synder worked together on Army of the Dead, this will be their first feature film for Netflix’s partnership with Synder’s production company The Stone Quarry Productions. Synder is on to direct his script, which he co-wrote with Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad.
While Rebel Moon doesn’t have a release date yet, we’ll be getting another Zack Snyder and Netflix project in the future. The spin-off animated TV series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas is expected to hit the platform sometime in 2022. Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas will portray the early phases of the zombie outbreak, so it will be acting as a prequel to the original Army of the Dead movie. A live-action sequel to Army of the Dead called Planet of the Dead is also in development. So, if you like zombies and sci-fi, it seems like you’ll have a lot to stream in the near future.
