Sumith Prasad
Netflix’s epic science-fiction film ‘Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire’ ends with the showdown between the Rebels and the forces of the Imperium, led by Admiral Atticus Noble. When Kora thinks that Kai is a trustworthy guide for her and her allies in the fight against the Motherworld’s new rulers, he switches sides and makes it clear that all he cares about is money. He hands Kora and her group of rebels to Noble but his betrayal comes with a price. His life gets threatened when the Rebels set out to survive the might of their enemies. Kai’s fate does affect the prospects of Charlie Hunnam appearing in the sequel to the movie, ‘Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver!’
The Cost of the Betrayal
Kai is dead. After Kora succeeds in forming a gang of rebels to fight the Imperium, Kai tells her that he needs to land their ship on a trading post to fulfill his business commitments. He informs her about the landing after expressing his desire to join her side in the war against the Imperium. After arriving at the trading post, however, Kai alerts the soldiers of the dictatorship, who locks Kora, Tarak, General Titus, Nemesis, and Darrian Bloodaxe up. Kai betrays Kora and her cause to earn money. Since the locked-up rebels are some of the best warriors on the enemy side, Kai realizes that the Imperium values them immensely.
After Noble talks to the Rebels, Kai takes a gun and asks Gunnar to kill Kora with his own hands. The mercenary also stresses the possibility of leaving the farmer out of the conflict without hurting him if he kills Kora. Gunnar then inserts the gun in Kora’s lock but instead of killing her, he frees her. The next second, Gunnar kills Kai. Although we don’t see his dead body after Gunnar shoots at him, it is evident that he cannot survive the shot to stay alive. Furthermore, Kai is a nobody as far as the Imperium is concerned. The soldiers who retrieve Noble from the battlefield may haven’t even noticed Kai’s dead body.
Although ‘Part One: A Child of Fire’ ends with Noble coming back from death to stay alive, there’s no reason to expect the same in Kai’s case. He is an insignificant businessman who does a favor to the government for money. His survival doesn’t help the Imperium in any way. Therefore, Kai seemingly remains dead.
Charlie Hunnam is Not in Part Two: The Scargiver
Charlie Hunnam is not a part of the cast of ‘Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver.’ Director Zack Snyder confirmed to EW that Kai’s death is final, paving the way for the actor’s departure from the two-part film series. “We were tempted to put him [Hunnam] on the poster for movie 2, just so people would be like, ‘Of course he’s going to make it through!’” Snyder told EW about Hunnam’s absence in the sequel. Hunnam initially read the script of ‘Rebel Moon’ to play another undisclosed character but he chose Kai despite the latter’s death in the first part itself.
“There’s something that happens very occasionally in one’s career — I’ll try to say this humbly, although it might sound arrogant — when you read a script and you think: ‘I feel like maybe I understand this guy better than anybody else does,’” Hunnam told Sharp. “There was a version of somebody reading Kai, and perceiving him as a bad guy and I thought, ‘I want to protect Kai from somebody mishandling him and playing him like a villain’ because he isn’t to me,” the actor added about the motivation behind choosing Kai.
In the second part, we can expect another showdown between Kora and Admiral Atticus Noble as the latter is asked to capture the former for her adoptive father Regent Balisarius.
Read More: Where Was Rebel Moon Part One A Child of Fire Filmed?
