Back in 2013, it was rumored that Zack Snyder had met with Disney’s just-purchased Lucasfilm to pitch a Star Wars film heavily inspired by The Seven Samurai. (Pitching an Akira Kurosawa-indebted Star Wars movie is sort of like proposing a new Taco Bell menu item “inspired by Mexican food,” no?) That obviously never came together, but just a month ago, Snyder revealed that he’s “been working on it away from the Star Wars universe, on [his] own”—in as much as something can be on one’s own when it’s now a rip-off two times over.
Late in May, on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he said, “It’s still a sci-fi thing. It’s the same story. Now, I’m just going to let Star Wars be Star Wars,” adding, “The 11-year-old me still wants to make that, and now, I know how to. So, maybe we’ll see that someday.” And thanks to Netflix, it seems that day is approaching.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder has made a deal with Netflix to follow up his Army of the Dead with another movie that’s terribly derivative of a late ’70s sci-fi classic. His next project will be giving the streamer an “epic sci-fi fantasy titled Rebel Moon.” After openly divulging that it’s just Seven Samurai in space, really not even trying to hide its secondary derivative origins, is he? This is 100% going to have “beamswords” or whatever and Disney lawyers are going to be like, “Yeah, it turns out having a sword with a light as a blade is not actually something you can copyright. There would not be a third No More Heroes game coming out if you could.”
In a statement, Snyder said, “My hope is that this also becomes a massive IP and a universe that can be built out.” And wouldn’t that be great? Zack Snyder’s Star Wars, the director of Watchmen once again narrowly eschewing a fan-beloved mainstream world to create a completely obvious one-to-one parallel universe that will certainly go darker with it. It will surely not be good, but it sure is Snyder.
