First trailer for Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon is actually more Dune than Star Wars

After a couple of years of hype and excitement about just how Star Wars-y Zack Snyder’s not-Star Wars movie would be, we now (sort of) have an answer: Netflix just released the first trailer for Rebel Moon, and while it is very Star Wars (there are RED AND BLUE LIGHTSABERS and SPACE FASCISTS), it actually feels more like Dune than anything. The spaceships look more like the big ugly boats of Dune than the sleek roadsters of Star Wars, but more than that it seems to be using a Dune-like “prophesied hero taking down an evil space empire” (sorry, it’s a king here, not an emperor, so that’s very different than either of the other things) concept… or at least a more Dune-like approach to that concept, since Star Wars had that in the prequels.

But as for Rebel Moon, it does look like a serviceable space epic, and if Zack Snyder is good at anything, it’s a very specific kind of artless artsy visuals. Explosions! Cool poses! Warriors charging into battle with their red laser swords ignited! Blaster guns shooting lasers! Some kind of pegasus? Whether or not the movies are any good at all (because there will be two Rebel Moon movies, plus a Snyder Cut of each with more sex stuff apparently), there’s a lot of stuff going on here and some of it looks interesting. Star Wars doesn’t have a pegasus!

Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child Of Fire will premiere on Netflix on December 22, and Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver will premiere on April 19, 2024. The movies star Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Charlie Hunnam, and Anthony Hopkins (playing a robot named Jimmy, apparently).