PG-13 Rebel Moon Shows Netflix Is Done Indulging Auteurs
Why the film really has multiple cuts and what it means for the streamer
In this article, which is presented in a question-and-answer format, I respond to the recent controversy that erupted online over the PG-13 Cut of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire, which came out on Netflix in December.
Among other things, I establish why multiple cuts of the film exist, why they have not been simultaneously released, and what this tells us about Netflix’s current stance on auteurism. In the process, I hope to debunk several myths about Rebel Moon, such as the notion that the company was attempting to ‘reverse engineer’ a Snyder Cut.
Table of ContentsWhy is there controversy about Rebel Moon having multiple cuts?
Because a lot of people didn’t seem to register until Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire premiered that it and its followup, Part 2: The Scargiver, would initially come out in a shorter PG-13 Version before receiving a 3-hour R-Rated director’s cut.
When this was discovered, many social media users became confused as to why the film needed to have two cuts in the first place. The general consensus is that this decision doesn’t make sense due to the fact that Rebel Moon is an original film produced primarily for a streaming platform rather than theaters.
Consequently, web-saavy fans and commentators became outraged at the fact that they were not getting the ‘true’ version of the film and jumped to the conclusion that Netflix was ‘pulling a stunt’ by withholding it or was capitalizing on the popularity of the Snyder Cut fan campaign by ‘reverse-engineering’ a lesser cut of the movie.*
*Some have even gone so far as to claim that the decision goes against the very notion of what a ‘director’s cut’ is, as in a version created in response to a compromised theatrical release.
Despite a lack of evidence, this became the widely accepted de facto explanation, one that was surprisingly embraced or promoted by multiple prominent film critics.
The way people were reacting to it, you’d think there is no precedent for an alternate cut being planned in advance of a film’s first run and that the Netflix release strategy is some huge surprise that was sprung on audiences at the last minute.
Which, frankly speaking, is bullshit.
Why is there a PG-13 Cut of Rebel Moon in the first place?
Let’s put aside the long history of Hollywood filmmakers, such as James Cameron, making concessions for theaters while having final cut to maximize a movie’s audience or prepping alternate cuts well in advance of the theatrical version’s release.
The simple fact is that Netflix never hid the fact that there would be two cuts for each installment of Rebel Moon. This was reported as far back as June 2023 in Vanity Fair magazine, six months before the film’s premiere on the streamer:
“Debuting on Netflix on December 22, Rebel Moon is not just one movie—it’s already a saga, with plans to split the film into two parts. That makes the $166 million price tag, estimated from California tax filings, a two-for-one bargain at around $83 million each…. Also arriving at later dates will be more explicit, harder-edged cuts of the two movies.
Though the Vanity Fair article does not specify why Netflix would want the film(s) in two cuts, it does delve into why Rebel Moon was split into two movies. The issue came down to the fact that the original one-film script for it “was shaping up to be approximately three hours long—which worried Netflix film chairman Scott Stuber.”
Stuber claimed that movies shorter than 2 hours performed better.
Side Note There are different accounts, as to how long exactly the ‘original script’ of Rebel Moon at the time it was decided to split it into two films. Vanity Fair states that it was 172 pages, but other interviews and articles I’ve found claim it was over 200 pages.
Further information about what Netflix expected from Rebel Moon can be gleaned from a Hollywood Reporter piece that would come out later in November:
“After some negotiations on length, Netflix greenlit the project as a two-parter. Snyder was originally expected to make it PG-13, but after another round of back-and-forths, it was agreed that the movie would have an additional cut: lengthier, sexier, more violent and R-rated.
Now, what does this all tell us?
Basically, Netflix wanted Rebel Moon to be a mass appeal, PG-13 movie preferably under two hours. By their calculations, this would maximize the picture’s streaming performance. Snyder, by contrast, wanted a much longer, more violent and sexually explicit R-rated movie that would be truer to his original script and appeal to his fanbase. So, Snyder negotiated with the studio and reached a compromise.
The film would be split into two parts, each of which would receive two cuts: an audience-friendly Netflix cut (which would get a brief run in theaters prior to the streaming release) and Snyder’s complete director’s cut, filled with all the sex, violence, and other content that he wanted to include in the first place.
To put it another way, he got to make his movie, a Snyder movie/cut, as long as he also made a more conventionally four-quadrant Hollywood movie/cut for Netflix.*
*According to actor Staz Nair, the cast apparently had a “separate script” for the extended cut. This would suggest Snyder filmed at least some if not all scenes twice - once for the PG-13 Version and once for the R-rated director’s cut.
Why hasn’t Netflix released the director’s cut already?
According to interviews with Snyder, both Studio Cuts are to be released first, with the director’s cuts to arrive at some point after the April 19, 2024 premiere of the PG-13 Part 2. A potential Summer 2024 release has been suggested, though a specific time has not yet been announced. Why release the PG-13 Cut first? Or, why not release both cuts simultaneously and let viewers choose between them?
Well, at the time of Part 1’s release, the director’s cut was not finished yet. Neither was the PG-13 Studio Cut of Part 2. Snyder explained back in December:
"I'm working hard on Part 2 now, which comes out April 19, at the same time we're working on the two director's cuts. Those will happen right after that [The Scargiver]. We don't have a hard date yet...."
Source: Zack Snyder, Vodka Stream discussion of Rebel Moon, 22 Dec 2023
Later in January, he would offer more information about the release dates of the director’s cut versions.
“Later on… in the Summer… you’ll see what I pitched them basically. ”
Source: DGA Podcast Conversation with Louis Letterier, 9 Jan 2024, 20:00
It is safe to assume that each cut of each Rebel Moon film requires a considerable amount of time in post-production due to the large amount of available footage and VFX shots. So it is likely that finishing and releasing the shorter versions before the longer ones simply made the most practical sense for Snyder and Netflix.
Another possible factor in the decision is that releasing both cuts at once could diminish the maximum viewing time or engagement of each individual unit.*
* Windowing different versions of the same film is a common strategy for distributors to get the best value out of their products.
In any case, there was no reverse engineering of the PG-13 Cut on the part of Netflix or Snyder. The movie wasn’t first finished as R-rated and then deliberately cut back to a PG-13 as a marketing gimmick. Rather, from the beginning, there was an agreement about releasing the film in different cuts, so as to ensure that it could appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Those claiming otherwise either failed to do their due diligence or just deliberately ignored inconvenient facts to promote a false narrative.
What can we expect in the director’s cut?
The director’s cut is said to run about 3 hours, which would suggest an additional 45 minutes of new footage. However, it is also likely to have a considerable amount of alternate footage - different takes, line readings, dialogues, action, and so on - given that the film was reportedly shot with a separate script.
This was more or less confirmed by writer Kurt Johnstad in an interview where he discusses the film’s evolution from a 200-plus-page script. He additionally states:
“The long draft that became two movies was always the Zack Snyder draft, and I would call that the extended version draft. So we ended up filming all of that… So we really had our eyes on four drafts, because, in a lot of ways, we were shooting four movies at once.”
Source: Interview for The Hollywood Reporter - December 28 2023
Having seen the PG-13 Cut, I’d say that there are multiple instances where it’s evident that some connective tissue went missing. The characters of Jimmy and Aris, for instance, largely vanish from the film following the opening sequences on the farm, despite seeming rather important early on. This, along with Jimmy’s brief re-appearance with deer-like horns at the end of the film, strongly implied that more material with the character was filmed, but cut from the PG-13 Version.
Johnstad confirmed this speculation about Jimmy in another interview:
“Jimmy has a much bigger story in those extended cuts and certainly in the second movie. It’s a little bit like Jimmy goes from this sentient robot to really becoming a little more human, and he goes a little feral.”
Source: Interview for Variety - December 23 2023
Based on the various interviews with Snyder, it appears that a lot of character development scenes or instances were also excised. After all, one of the rationales for splitting the film into two parts in the first place was to preserve the character development, with Snyder describing Rebel Moon as a ‘character story.’
The released Child of Fire, by contrast, seems very plot-oriented and doesn’t feature much in the way of character development for any of the main characters outside of Kora. I assume that nobody expected at the time the split was decided on that the director’s cut of just the first part of Rebel Moon would end up being around 3 hours all by itself, ironically forcing Snyder to focus everything on the plot.
Thus, it is logical to assume that the lost character development will be restored.*
“Zack said, ‘If you ask me to make this less than two hours, I’m going to lose all the character. You won’t care about these people. It’s a character story…’ So he said, ‘What if I give you two movies?’”
Source: Vanity Fair
Any explicit sexual content was also clearly removed to ensure the PG-13 rating.
About 7 minutes into the film, it is implied that Kora has a casual sexual encounter off-screen. The way the sequence is cut together, it is almost certain that the encoun-ter was filmed. An extended sequence between Admiral Noble and his octopus was likely filmed as well. Though it is only briefly glimpsed in the released Part 1, the sequence is far longer and more graphic in the film’s novelization by V. Castro, which was apparently based on an early version of the Rebel Moon script, and so contains many fascinating world-building details in addition to cut scenes and subplots.*
*To be clear, I have not read the novelization but my colleague Elvis Dutan has. We recently discussed the differences between the novelization and the released PG-13 Cut, as well as other things about the films, on his Unsourced Wall Radio podcast. In Elvis’ opinion, the novelization considerably improves upon the film and may be its best incarnation.
Why did Netflix want a short duration?
Because, contrary to what some may believe, Netflix actually does have limitations.
To start, it cares about the amount of money it’s spending on film production and it desires a good return on investment, which can be typically measured in the number of hours that users spend watching its Original Content, and the number of new paying subscribers the Original signs up or old subscribers it helps retain.*
*It is also likely that Netflix is now making money from its ad-based tier. Though I’m not certain of how the economics of this tier work, it is likely that the more people watch with ads, the more money Netflix makes.
The very fact that Netflix chose to make two Rebel Moon installments for the price of one standard (mega) studio blockbuster is already illustrative of that.*
*It should be noted that the two-parter’s actual budget is likely in the $200+ million range, as the $166-million reported number did not include ‘above-the-line’ costs such as the director and actor salaries. That’s not to mention that Hollywood tends to underreport budgets in general, and the costs of the picture(s) could’ve very well grown during production.
Snyder even alluded to the fact that he had to make compromises for time and rating due to how expensive the film was in the December 22, 2023 Rebel Moon post-release interview with Vodka Stream:
“The why of the movie is… for me, that version of the movie you’ll see soon. Because, of course… I also understand this is a- an expensive endeavour and that it’s important to be a good partner and try… be as inclusive as possible with the audience.”
So, while Netflix may have little interest in making money from theatrical box office, it still has much incentive to procure a lighter rating to maximize a work’s potential viewers and thus viewing hours, in turn bolstering its overall level of engagement. The decision to let Snyder make his director’s cuts can very well be an extension of this mentality: in total, the company gets a total of four Rebel Moons.
Does a shorter running time indeed equal greater engagement for a Netflix Original film? I don’t know. But I’d say Netflix is convinced that this is the case. If you look at the running times on Wikipedia’s List of Original Netflix Feature Films released in 2023, you’ll see that, out of the 153 movies listed, only about 30 are 2 hours or longer.
This means over 80% of Netflix’s 2023 Original Films are under two hours.
Now, one should note that the list does not refer to every Original Film that Netflix itself has produced. From what I understand, the actual number of True or House Original movies it has itself made is probably less than half of that.
Nonetheless, the listing does illustrate that most Netflix Original Films nowadays are pretty short, somewhere in the range of 90-110 minutes. And though there are several titles that exceed its 135-minute duration, Rebel Moon Part 1, even in its reduced cut, is still among the longest Netflix Original Films released last year.
When did Netflix start to care about time and money?
Such measures may seem surprising, given how Netflix began its foray into producing Original Films by basically throwing huge chunks of money at Hollywood filmmakers and giving them carte blanche to make whatever they wanted. That is how we got Martin Scorsese’s $200+ million, 3.5-hour crime opus The Irishman (2019) and Zack Snyder’s own R-rated, no-holds-barred 2.5-hour action horror Army of the Dead (2021).
In 2022, however, Netflix underwent what Matthew Beloni of PUCK likes to refer to as the “Great Netflix Correction.” The company decided to tighten its belt buckles and become more corporate and fiscally responsible after losing 200,000 subscribers and facing increased streaming competition. And one of its strategies was, as THR reported, to start making fewer movies while focusing predominantly on event films.
“As it moves forward, Netflix wants to focus on making bigger movies, making better movies, and releasing fewer than it previously did at a gluttonous pace…. One thing many agree on is that the era of expensive vanity projects at Netflix, whether animation or live action (like Martin Scorsese’s $175 million The Irishman), is likely over.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter - June 1, 2022.
We can sum up the film-related transition like this: the New Hollywood era of Netflix came to an end and the more conservative, commercial blockbuster-centered period of 80s Hollywood began. This is likely why Rebel Moon did not get the same treat-ment as Army of the Dead, and thus why there isn’t just one uncensored, epic-length cut of each chapter filled with all the sex and violence Snyder clearly longed to include.
In any case, the production of the Rebel Moon PG-13 Cut reflects the fact that Netflix is no longer willing to throw Hollywood auteurs a blank check to realize their visions. After positioning itself for years as a bastion of creative freedom, the company now displays little difference from a traditional studio that puts commercial interest first.
Will Rebel Moon continue beyond Part 2?
I highly doubt it.
Rebel Moon was supposed to be Snyder’s next big transmedia franchise. But Child of Fire has not had great ratings, and its critical reception has been largely negative, so the saga is unlikely to continue beyond the currently planned director’s cuts.* In turn, I don’t think Snyder will stick around with Netflix for much longer.
*Perhaps we might see it live on in other media, like comic books, but the cinematic installments are all but certain to end this Summer.
The multi-version production and distribution plan for Fire and Scargiver already reflected a more cautious and careful Netflix than the one that indulged Snyder with full creative freedom over the excessive, big-budget Army of the Dead.
Though almost certainly attributable to the general pivot Netflix had undergone in 2022, the shift also suggests that the company might’ve cooled a little on Snyder following the performance of Army. Bolstering this possibility is the fact that the animated Army spinoff series Lost Vegas, which was supposed to tie into the Rebel Moon universe, has been indefinitely delayed, if not outright cancelled.
On top of that, producer Scott Stuber has recently left Netflix, meaning that Snyder no longer has a key collaborator who might be willing to go to bat for him at the more frugal, post-pivot iteration of the company. Given all of this, I’d say Snyder and Netflix will part ways sometime after the R-rated versions debut this Summer.
Conclusions
Would Rebel Moon have better chances of becoming a success if Netflix had simply let Snyder make and release just his R-rated, 3-hour versions of both parts? It’s difficult to say. There are no guarantees, as to whether or not its performance on the platform, however one measures it, would be better or worse.
I do believe the reception of Child of Fire would’ve been more positive though I don’t think the extended version will fix all of its issues.* There are clearly problems with the picture on the script level that no amount of editing could address.
* In my opinion, though it’s not a good movie, it is watchable and nowhere near as bad as the critical reception would lead you to believe. Were I to grade it, I’d give it a C+.
Without a doubt, however, there certainly wouldn’t be any controversy about the film coming out in multiple cuts that skewed different audiences, a tried-and-true strategy of the video industry meant to maximize a work’s commercial success.
The next time something like this happens, viewers and critics alike will hopefully no longer operate under the false presumption that streaming platforms like Netflix are not bound by the commercial restrictions inherent to the traditional studio modes of production and distribution. Rather, they should understand that the multi-version release of Rebel Moon is not an exception to the norm but a sign of the new (old) normal, a testament to the fact that Netflix was never fundamentally different from the likes of Warner, Disney, Universal or other ‘legacy media’ companies.
But what do you think?Was Rebel Moon a good or bad movie? Should Netflix have released it in just the director’s cut? Is this just some unsuccessful experiment that won’t be repeated or indeed a long-term strategy? Will Snyder indeed continue working with the streamer? Please,
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
Loved this. It’s on my list to watch. I don’t know how I didn’t know about the future director’s cut! Do you think I should just wait?