Ed Skrein Replaces Rupert Friend In Zack Snyder’s Netflix Sci-Fi Epic ‘Rebel Moon’; Cleopatra Coleman, Fra Free & Rhian Rees Also Set To Star

Matt Grobar
·3-min read

EXCLUSIVE: Ed Skrein (Deadpool) has replaced Rupert Friend in Zack Snyder’s sci-fi epic Rebel Moon for Netflix, following Friend’s exit from the project due to scheduling conflicts, with Cleopatra Coleman (Dopesick), Fra Fee (Hawkeye) and Rhian Rees (Nope) also signing on for roles. The actors join an ensemble that also includes Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Stuart Martin, Cary Elwes, Corey Stoll, Michiel Huisman and Alfonso Herrera, as previously announced.

Rebel Moon is set in a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy that finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius, then dispatching a young woman (Boutella) with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them make a stand. While Skrein will be playing the film’s principal antagonist, details with regard to the characters the other new cast members will be playing have not been disclosed.

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Rebel Moon is the first feature to fall under Netflix’s first-look partnership with Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller’s production company, The Stone Quarry Productions. Snyder is directing from the script he wrote with Shay Hatten (Army of the Dead) and Kurt Johnstad (300), which was based on his and Johnstad’s story. Snyder is also producing alongside Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller for The Stone Quarry, with Eric Newman for Grand Electric. Bergen Swanson is exec producing alongside Hatten, Johnstad, and Sarah Bowen for Grand Electric, with VP Studio Film Ori Marmur overseeing the project for Netflix.

Skrein is perhaps best known for his role as villain Ajax in the first Deadpool film. He’s also appeared in features including Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, Midway, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Alita: Battle Angel, If Beale Street Could Talk and The Transporter Refueled, among others. His TV credits include HBO’s Game of Thrones and Canal+’s The Tunnel.

Coleman recently appeared in the Hulu series Dopesick, and in Mo McRae’s SXSW pic A Lot of Nothing. She’s also been seen in films including The Right One and In the Shadow of the Moon, as well as such series as The Last Man on Earth, White Famous and Better Things. Other upcoming films featuring Coleman include the comedy Not an Artist, with Haley Joel Osment, Ciara Bravo and Rosalind Chao; Brandon Cronenberg’s genre-bender Infinity Pool, with Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth; and the horror-thriller Cobweb, with Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr and Woody Norman.

Fee played mercenary Kazi Kazimierczak on Disney+’s Hawkeye and has also appeared in films including The Laureate, Cinderella and Les Misérables.

Rees has been seen in David Gordon Green’s 2018 takeover of Halloween and the romantic drama Confessions of a Child of the Century, with Charlotte Gainsbourg. She’ll also soon be seen in Jordan Peele’s highly anticipated horror film Nope, as well as Damien Chazelle’s period Hollywood film, Babylon.

Skrein is represented by WME, 42 and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole; Coleman by CAA, Entertainment 360 and McKuin Frankel Whitehead; Fee by Dalzell and Beresford in the UK, Paradigm, Untitled Entertainment and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman; and Rees by Seven Summits Pictures & Management and Myman Greenspan Fox.

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