Zack Snyder has been enjoying some creative freedom over at Netflix working on his latest film Rebel Moon. The sci-fi flick is based on Akira Kurosawa’s samurai epic Seven Samurai and was originally slated to be a Star Wars spinoff, so just from that you can get a sense of the storyline and the scale. There are high hopes for this project which is set to land on Netflix at the end of this year.

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This will be Snyder’s first directorial role since 2021’s Army of the Dead with the director heading back to his world-building roots, taking it one step further into galaxy-building. This is something that the director has been working on for some time now, having been tinkering with the story for over three decades. Of the premise, Netflix’s Tudum writes:

“Rebel Moon takes place in a far-flung corner of the galaxy, where the peaceful moon colony Veldt is being forced to surrender their harvest to the military horde of the tyrannical Mother World. Desperate to protect her adopted home world — and well aware of the ruthless brutality of the Imperium — a mysterious young woman embarks on a high-stakes interstellar mission to gather warriors from around the galaxy who will help deliver them from evil.“

Due to the nature of this film, it will be a grand ensemble cast, which can either work very well or fall very flat and that depends hugely on the chemistry between actors and the role of the director in bringing them all together. This is something that Snyder has done over and over again, with his films 300, Justice League, and Army of the Dead standing testament to that. Of this epic endeavor, Snyder told Vanity Fair, “I’m a glutton for punishment. I don’t know why I always make an ensemble movie. I can’t wait to not do that. But in the meantime, of course…I love it.”

Tudum recently dropped some first-look images of the major heroes and the villain of the upcoming film to give us all a welcome insight as to what we can expect.

Admiral Atticus Noble – Ed Skrein

Skrien plays villain Admiral Atticus Noble, an Imperium enforcer who will serve as our heroes nemesis in the first part of this two-part epic. He commands the fierce space cruiser called The King’s Gaze which brings with it death and destruction. Of his character, Skrien told Tudum, “When you look at Noble, you see the harshest type of military savageness. You see a ruthless, cold man who has chosen horror over morality for the directness of it. In a world where morality is waning, he has cast morality aside in the name of ambition.”

You may have seen Skrein in a number of projects including as one of the villains in Alita: Battle Angel and Deadpool as well as projects such as Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, If Beale Street Could Talk, and The Transporter: Refueled,

Kora – Sofia Boutella

Much like Finn in Star Wars, Kora is also a deserter of the oppressive regime. She has been hiding on the moon Veldt away from her old life, that is until the Mother World decides to seize it as its own and Kora realizes she can hide no longer. In order to save her peaceful found home she sets off across the galaxy to find seven warriors she believes can take on Mother World.

You will have likely seen Boutella in plenty of action-packed projects such as The Mummy, Atomic Blonde, Climax, and Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Kai – Charlie Hunnam

Kai is the first to be recruited, with Kora convincing the mercenary starship pilot to help her seek out others to help. They need his Tawau-Class freighter to get off-world, though it is going to be a bumpy ride.

You may have seen the British actor in a number of epics already including Pacific Rim, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Children of Men, Crimson Peak, and The Lost City of Z.

Gunnar – Michiel Huisman

Gunnar is a naive farmer from Veldt who has no idea what Mother World is capable of but agrees to assist Kora if it means saving his farm and his world. Of his character, Snyder told Vanity Fair:

“There’s a scene where Charlie [Hunnam] says, ‘What do you do in the village?’ And Gunnar goes, ‘Well, I’m in charge of the harvest. I catalog seeds.’ Charlie’s like, ‘Oh…okay.’ In a lot of ways, the whole village, they have a slightly naive view of what the Imperium is capable of. They don’t think they’ll just be murdered by them.”

You will have seen Huisman in Age of Adaline, Game of Thrones, World War Z, and The Haunting of Hill House.

General Titus – Djimon Hounsou

A hardened general, Kora needs someone who is capable of leading, which leads her to Titus. When we first meet him he is fighting in a Gladiator-style battle, sad, and unwilling to get involved with anyone else’s problems, in part due to the very same evil that now threatens Veldt. “She’s trying to convince him to join up,” Snyder states. “There’s events that happened to him in the past that made him have to leave the Imperium and actually become an enemy of the Mother World. That scarred him.”

Hounsou has appeared in a number of successful franchises before, such as playing roles in Guardians of the Galaxy, Shazam!, and Furious 7, as well as The Legend of Tarzan, Constantine, and A Quiet Place Part II.

Tarak – Staz Nair

A character a little more feral than the others is Tarak, who is giving off heavy Tarzan vibes in this image. It isn’t just his looks that give off a very down-to-earth feel, but he is so in tune with nature that he can communicate with a flying beast called Bennu. Once they figure out how to get him out of his debt, he agrees to join as he too has a bone to pick with Mother World. According to Snyder, this character was inspired heavily by Conan the Barbarian.

Nair has acted in shows such as Supergirl, Game of Thrones, Krypton, and Humans.

Nemesis – Bae Doona

A cyborg sword-master, Nemesis’ arms enable her to hold things no mere mortal could. These appendages didn’t just happen by accident, Snyder created a whole backstory for them, explaining, “These swords are powered by the gauntlets that she holds. The gauntlets are these ancient [artifacts] from her home world, and part of the rite of passage of being a warrior in her world is you have to cut your arm off, and then you put these kind of robot arms on. That allows you to wield these molten-metal blades.”

Bae is a South Korean actress who has worked in the realm of sci-fi many times such as in Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending and Sense8. She has also starred in Korean dramas such as The Host and Bong Joon Ho’s debut film Barking Dogs Never Bite.

Darrian Bloodaxe – Ray Fisher

Darrian is part of a brother-sister team, with the two using guerilla tactics to undermine Mother World for some time, so it shouldn’t take much convincing to get them on board with a plan to take down the galactic villains. The duo have been working hard in their efforts to hamper Mother World, but have yet to see any real impact their personal vendetta has yielded. Snyder tells Vanity Fair, “They fight and hide. They don’t have the resources to have a pitched battle in the wide open,” Snyder says. “They’re kind of just fucking with supply lines and blowing up train tracks. That’s their kind of thing.”

This film sees the reunion of Snyder and Fisher after the actor starred as Cyborg in Justice League. You may have also caught him in True Detective and Women of the Movement.

Milius – E. Duffy

Then we have Milius, a non-binary character who is a refugee from a planet much like Veldt, one who has seen what can happen if you surrender to Mother Earth rather than fight back. They may have no specific skill, but what they do bring to the table is heart, “That really is their specialty. In a lot of ways, they have the purest motivation to fight. Everyone else is battling some past demon, whereas Milius feels, ‘My world was destroyed, and it was very similar to this world. I didn’t get a chance to defend it, so I choose this one to defend.’”

Like the character E. Duffy is also non-binary and this is their first feature film.

“Jimmy” – Anthony Hopkins

A robot that once served a great King, he is a mechanical knight, a relic, and where most of his kind have faded away he has endured. The character is voiced by Hopkins, and if we need to tell you who that is you have been living under a rock for decades, but just to be clear Hopkins has starred in such films as The Father, The Elephant Man, The Remains of the Day, Nixon, the Thor franchise, and Silence of the Lambs.

There are of course other actors involved in this epic sci-fi, such as Jena Malone voicing a spider, but these are the key characters above. It truly is a star-studded cast, so lets hope that Snyder can use his directing chops to bring them all together so they sizzle on screen.

Rebel Moon is set to premiere on Netflix on Dec. 22, 2023 with plans for a limited theatrical release as well.