Remember almost 10 years ago when there were rumblings that Zack Snyder was pitching a Star Wars movie? Obviously, that project never happened. But the general idea behind that film — minus the mythology of a galaxy far, far, away — is still happening, and it just added its first star.
Deadline reports that Kingsman, Mummy, and Star Trek Beyond actress Sofia Boutella has been cast by Zack Snyder for his next movie, Rebel Moon. Rebel Moon is a riff on Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and is about a peaceful colony that’s being threatened by armies led by an evil leader. To protect themselves, the colony hires a young woman (Boutella, we assume) to put together a team of warriors who can band together and help them. You know. Seven Samurai in space.
This is likely to be Snyder’s next movie, which he’ll direct and co-write with Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad. And, like his last movie, Army of the Dead, this is being made by Netflix with the aim of being a large, original franchise the streamer can build out with different spinoffs, sequels, and more. Basically, a Snyderverse.
The casting is a slam dunk for Snyder too because Boutella has been on the edges of franchise superstardom for several years now. She first got mainstream attention as the deadly assassin in Kingsman: The Secret Service, was cast as the title character in the Dark Universe Tom Cruise movie The Mummy, and was one of the new aliens in the most recent Star Trek film, Beyond. Unfortunately, in Kingsman — the only franchise among those three that’s currently still active on the big screen — her character died. So it’s like she’s been right there, but hasn’t quite popped yet. But if anyone can successfully start a franchise, it’s Snyder, especially when it’s an idea he’s been thinking about for years. “This is me growing up as an Akira Kurosawa fan, a Star Wars fan,” Snyder said a few months back. “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.”