This is how it works: if you’re in a massive-scale action movie, playing a character with a name as ridiculously amped-up as ‘Darrian Bloodaxe’, you have to have the hardware to back it up. That’s exactly the position that Ray Fisher finds himself in when it comes to Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – after playing Cyborg for the director in Justice League (and afforded far more depth and screen-time in the Snyder Cut), he’s re-teaming with the director for his epic new sci-fi blowout. Yes, his character is named Darrian Bloodaxe. And yes, he has a ridiculously gigantic gun. “It’s massive,” laughs Fisher in Empire’s world-exclusive Rebel Moon cover feature. “It’s four feet. It’s almost as big as me.”
As his name suggests, Bloodaxe is not to be messed with – which is handy, since the people of peaceful planet Veldt are amassing a small force of formidable warriors to try and push back against the demands of the evil Imperium. (Yes, the film was heavily inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.) With his burly exterior, his experience as a rebel leader, and his big, bold weaponry, Bloodaxe is exactly the kind of guy you’d want on your side. In bringing him to life, Fisher looked to the same sources as his director. “I pulled from the Seven Samurai of it all,” he tells Empire. “Certain postures I take with my weapon, some of them I modeled after Toshirô Mifune, who carries that katana in a very specific way over his shoulder. Sometimes what I would do, before a take would start, is whisper to myself, ‘Mifune.’”
If Kurosawa’s samurai had weaponry like Darrian Bloodaxe? Well, they probably wouldn’t have needed seven of them. Just saying.
Read Empire’s world-exclusive Rebel Moon cover story – speaking to Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, and their cast including Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Ray Fisher, Ed Skrein, and E. Duffy – in the upcoming August 2023 issue, on sale Thursday 6 July. Become an Empire member to access the digital edition in full on launch day, or pre-order a print copy online now here. Rebel Moon comes to Netflix on 22 December.