‘Rebel Moon Part One’ Recap — What to Remember Before ‘The Scargiver’

The Big Picture

• Rebel Moon: Part Two — The Scargiver
  premieres on Netflix soon, concluding Zack Snyder’s cinematic epic.
• A Child of Fire
  set the stage by introducing Kora, her ties to the Motherworld, and mysterious characters like Jimmy.
• The upcoming film promises an all-out war story with expanded character arcs and the potential for a third movie.

Rebel Moon: Part Two — The Scargiver will launch on Netflix soon, marking the conclusion to the latest cinematic epic by Zack Snyder. Snyder’s aimed to get Rebel Moon onto the screen for years; first pitching it as an entry into the Star Wars universe, then reworking it into an original story under a new deal with Netflix. Last year saw the first steps into this universe with Rebel Moon: Part One — A Child of Fire, as a young woman named Kora (Sofia Boutella) assembles a group of warriors from across the galaxy to defend the small moon of Veldt from the tyrannical Motherworld. A Child of Fire also lays the groundwork for The Scargiver and future entries into the world of Rebel Moon, and here’s everything you need to remember.

‘Rebel Moon: Part One — A Child Of Fire’ Brought an Unlikely Band of Warriors Together

Rebel Moon kicks off when Veldt is visited by a Motherworld ship. Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrien) was sent by the Motherworld to hunt down the revolutionaries Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher) and his sister Devra (Cleopatra Coleman); it turns out that one of Veldt’s residents, Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) had sold surplus crops to the Bloodaxes. When Noble demands that Veldt supply his forces with grain, Kora decides to gather warriors to defend her fellow villagers. She and Gunnar end up running into the smuggler Kai (Charlie Hunnam), who helps them find an eclectic group of companions including the former prince Tarak (Staz Nair), the deadly swordswoman Nemesis (Doona Bae), and former Motherworld general Titus (Djimon Hounsou). They even encounter the Bloodaxes, with Darrian lending some of his men to the cause.

Kai sells out Kora and her companions to Noble, which leads to Gunnar killing him and helping free the others. The resulting fight sees Darrian killed taking down a Motherworld gunship, while all of his forces are decimated – save for a lone soldier, Milius (E. Duffy), who decides to join Kora and her friends. Kora seemingly kills Noble, but he is resurrected by the Motherworld’s priests and brought before Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee), who demands that Noble crush the revolution and bring Kora back to the Motherworld alive.

Kora’s Connection to the Motherworld Is Explored in ‘Rebel Moon: Part One’

Throughout A Child of Fire, Kora reveals more of her past to Gunnar. Like most of the warriors she recruits, her planet was razed by the Motherworld. Balisarius spared her and raised her as his own daughter, giving her the name “Arthelais.” She trained as a soldier, rising up in the ranks until she was chosen to become the bodyguard to Princess Issa (Stella Grace Fitzgerald). Issa was meant to usher in a golden age of peace for the universe until she and the rest of her family were murdered by a mysterious assassin. Kora fled the Motherworld and crash-landed on Veldt, where she was taken in by the villagers – but the Motherworld never forgave her. Noble refers to her as the “Scargiver,” with part two of Rebel Moon shaping up to explore what exactly happened on the day the royal family was struck down.

Jimmy Finds a New Purpose in ‘Rebel Moon’

Kora isn’t the only character in Rebel Moon who’s tied to the royal family. When Noble leaves a small contingent of soldiers on Veldt to keep the peace until his return, they activate a “Jimmy” (Dustin Ceithamer/Anthony Hopkins), a mechanical knight meant to defend the Motherworld’s ruling class. Jimmy and the rest of his fellow machines, better known as the Mechanicas Miltarium, stopped fighting after Issa was slain, as they felt they had lost their purpose. After he meets a villager named Sam (Charlotte Maggi) and notices her resemblance to Issa, Jimmy ends up shooting one of the Motherworld soldiers that threatens her. He’s shown to play a potentially large role in the trailer for The Scargiver, joining forces with Kora and laying waste to Motherworld soldiers. Jimmy’s presence is sporadic in A Child of Fire, though the upcoming extended cut may expand on his role and his newfound purpose of defending Veldt.

‘Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver’ Is An All Out War Movie

Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver is shaping up to be even more action-packed than its predecessor, judging from the trailer. That’s exactly what Snyder intended.“Part Two is a war movie,” he said during a Entertainment Weekly interview.

“We know that Noble’s alive and Belisarius has given him the task of finding his daughter and bringing her back to him at all costs. So the stakes have risen for the village from ‘hey, we want some of your grain’ to now ‘you’re harboring the most wanted fugitive in the history of the galaxy.’”

The battle for Veldt is only the beginning, as Snyder has plans for a third film and beyond. “If we were to go forward and make more movies, we know the goal…I think in an ideal world, we’d definitely have a longer arc to this giant universe, and then at that point I would be happy to hand it off to someone else. But I know what I want to do with it,” Snyder told SFX Magazine.

The Rebel Moon universe is slowly starting to expand, with a prequel comic that focuses on the Bloodaxes’ rise to becoming revolutionaries and a video game project in the works. Time, and the reception to The Scargiver, will see if that expansion blossoms into a sci-fi universe to rival the likes of Star Wars or Dune.

Rebel Moon: Part One — A Child of Fire is available to stream on Netflix. Rebel Moon: Part Two — The Scargiver premieres April 19.

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