Zack Snyder Pitched an R-Rated Star Wars Movie to Lucasfilm Before Rebel Moon

Zack Snyder has stood out for building darker, more adult and mature versions of different pop culture stories. He did it with the Snyderverse for DC and also tried to do it with Star Wars before creating his own galactic sci-fi franchise with Netflix, Rebel Moon.

The director behind Man of Steel and Batman v Superman will release a space opera in December that will try to build a franchise similar to the one created by George Lucas, but with a quite different tone, similar to the other Snyder productions. However, he wanted to do the same but within the Star Wars universe.

In an interview with Empire Magazine, the director revealed that he pitched an idea for an R-rated Star Wars movie to Lucasfilm, but sadly the timing wasn’t right:

“It was Seven Samurai in space. And a Star Wars movie was my original concept for it. The sale [of Lucasfilm to Disney] had just happened,” says Zack Snyder. “There was that window where, you know, who knows what’s possible? I was like, ‘I don’t want any of your characters. I don’t want to do anything with any known characters, I just want to do my own thing on the side.’ And originally, I was like, ‘It should be rated R!’ That was almost a non-starter.”

This pitch was made while he was still working on the post-production of Man of Steel, so if he had been accepted to develop the project, he would have worked on two huge franchises at once.

Related: Star Wars: Darth Vader’s 10 Best Quotes in the Franchise, Ranked

What We Know About Rebel Moon So Far

Here’s the official synopsis for the movie:

“A peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius. The desperate civilians dispatch Kora, a young woman who has a mysterious past, to seek out warriors from nearby planets to help them challenge the regent.”

Besides the story, one of the most remarkable things about the new Snyder movie is its cast. Rebel Moon stars Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Charlotte Maggi, Ray Fisher, Jena Malone, E. Duffy, Staz Nair, Doona Bae, Sky Yang, Charlie Hunnam, Alfonso Herrera, and Anthony Hopkins.

Boutella plays Kora, the main hero and ex member of the Empire who now wants the colony to stand up and defend themselves from the imperial threats. Hunnam plays Kai, a pilot who will help Koran in any way he can. Hounson plays Titus, a fallen hero that will try to support the rebellion.

Former Deadpool star Ed Skrein will be one of the main villains, an officer of the Empire clouded by power and who blindly follows the orders of the ruling Emperor. With his army he’ll do anything in his power to prevent the rebels from succeeding in order to preserve the current order.

Rebel Moon arrives at Netflix on December 22, and a sequel has already been confirmed, so it is pretty clear that both the director and the streaming platform want this story to become an epic franchise. That likely means that fans can expect more than two movies.