Rebel Moon's Mysterious Masked Figures Have An Even Creepier Explanation

As much as certain fans couldn't get enough of Zack Snyder's take on the world-famous pantheon of DC superheroes, his trilogy of franchise films always held a glimpse of the original blockbuster epic that has been bubbling up inside of him. Think of those explosive, Krypton-set action scenes in "Man of Steel," the so-called "Knightmare" dream sequence in "Batman v Superman," and the genuinely otherworldly depictions of the villains Darkseid and Steppenwolf going from planet to planet, wrecking entire armies in some of the most exhilarating moments of "Zack Snyder's Justice League." The release of "Rebel Moon," which recently unveiled its sweeping and expansive trailer, will once again give the director a chance to be fully unchained from IP constrictions and simply wild out, for lack of a better phrase.

Part of that freedom afforded by making an original blockbuster epic means coming up with loads of world-building from scratch. That's how you end up with concepts like the Imperium-controlled Mother World waging war on the remote and peaceful moon of Veldt, a centuries-old robot voiced by Anthony Hopkins, and the spider-like being Harmada portrayed by Jena Malone, to name just a few. But there's an even more out-there example of the zaniness Snyder has in store, represented by one particular character design residing in the margins of the recently-released trailer footage.

Meet the Scribes, the ornately masked figures flanking Ed Skrein's villainous Admiral Noble in the above image. In an extensive profile published earlier this summer, Snyder opened up about their roles, the reasoning behind their scary designs, and more.

Zack Snyder sure knows his sci-fi. Fans of the first "Dune" novel remember that the epic story features the initially unseen Princess Irulan recording the events taking place on the desert planet of Arrakis, while "Star Wars" largely relies on the ancient Jedi Order to chronicle all the matters of galactic import that have been done throughout the franchise. But "Rebel Moon" involves a very different means of preserving and rewriting history.

In a profile with Vanity Fair, the divisive but undeniably creative filmmaker revealed a crucial bit of world-building regarding the mysterious (and aptly-named) Scribes. "Their purpose is, they write down information." Seems straightforward enough, no? Well, that's until you account for the fact that, instead of putting pen to paper, these beings from an evocative religious order use actual human beings as their preferred method of transcribing. According to Snyder:

"Your DNA stores information. You are put in stasis if you're a page, and your body just becomes like a hard drive. The Scribes have the ability to transfer what they see. That's how history is recorded by the Mother World. You can plug into those things later, and you experience the history as a memory. But the Scribes, of course, are manipulated by politics, and they write down only what they're supposed to."

Well, that sounds ... horrifying. But as much as Snyder's quote doubles down on the darkness and edginess his films always seem to be flirting with, it also speaks to the potent idea of who decides what official history really is and why. The trailer teases plenty of spectacle, but there should be enough time in the epic-sized runtimes of the two-part franchise to really dig into such unsettling themes, too.

"Rebel Moon" comes to Netflix on December 22, 2023.