Zack Snyder is a big screen man. Having dipped his toes into the superhero world and tackling some of the most iconic comic book characters, Zack Snyder had one other goal he wanted to achieve: a story in a galaxy far, far away. That’s right, before he made some of the best superhero movies (some), he pitched an idea for a Star Wars feature.
Given that he’s already tackled some pretty out-of-this-world characters through the tales of Watchmen, and the DCU‘s Man of Steel and Justice League, Star Wars doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch. And with Snyder providing what’s likely to be one of the best Netflix movies coming soon, Rebel Moon, he’s going to other planets anyway.
But did you know that Rebel Moon actually started out as a Star Wars pitch? That’s right, Snyder actually found himself in a room with the President of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, to try and sell her on his Star Wars idea. But things weren’t meant to be, and Snyder has just revealed why things didn’t pan out.
“It was Seven Samurai in space,” he said of his pitch [via Empire]. “And a Star Wars movie was my original concept for it. I knew that the origins for George [Lucas] were a lot of those Kurosawa films. I was a big Kurosawa fan, so it made sense as a concept. A really simple story. Kind of clean. Good versus evil.”
Sounds like the stuff that the best Star Wars movies are made of. So what went wrong? Well, it sounds like Snyder’s idea went a little beyond what the Star Wars execs were looking to bank on at the time.
“The sale [of Lucasfilm to Disney] had just happened,” he continued. “There was that window where, you know, who knows what’s possible? I was like, ‘I don’t want any of your characters. I don’t want to do anything with any known characters, I just want to do my own thing on the side. And originally I was like, ‘It should be rated R!’ That was almost a non-starter.”
Granted, the idea of a Star Wars movie without any of the best Star Wars characters sounds a little odd. And in retrospect, Snyder knows it.
“I knew it was a big ask, to be honest,” he confessed. “But the deeper I got into it, I realized it was probably never going to be what I wanted. [There was a vibe of:] ‘We have our own ideas about what we want to do with the Star Wars universe. You have an idea about a Star Wars movie? Go do that as a fan film.'”
It’s a shame we’ll never see the Star Wars Snyder Cut come to life, but at least we have the Rebel Moon release date on the way to keep us busy. In the meantime, check out everything new on Netflix this month, and see what new movies are coming up in the DCU with the Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters guide. Don’t miss our list of all the best movies of all time, too.