With little more than a month to go before its theatrical release on August 15, Samuel Goldwyn Films has unleashed the trailer for the new Red Sonja movie, directed by M.J. Bassett (Solomon Kane), and starring Matilda Lutz (Medici: Masters of Florence).
The R-rated film marks the first big screen appearance for Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith‘s Hyborian warrior (inspired by Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard‘s Red Sonya) since the 1985 movie with Brigitte Nielsen. It follows Sonja after she is captured by the villainous warlord Dragan (Robert Sheehan), and his bride, Dark Annisia (Wallis Day). Forced to fight in the arena for their amusement, she eventually rises through the ranks, and starts an uprising. The film takes inspiration from the comics published by Dynamite since 2005, with the character of Dark Annisia originating from Gail Simone and Walter Geovani‘s 2013 Red Sonja run.
The movie’s release brings to an end a protracted road for Red Sonja’s return to theaters. Robert Rodriguez planned to direct the reboot with his then partner Rose McGowan in the lead role in 2008, and then Simon West (Con Air) took over the project. Bryan Singer signed on in 2018, but despite producer Avi Lerner coming to his defense, the filmmaker was dropped after the sexual assault allegations about him, and replaced by Transparent creator Joey Soloway. Soloway cast Hannah John-Kamen as Sonja in 2021, but both of them left, and were replaced by Bassett and Lutz before filming finally got underway the following year. (Incidentally, Bassett is a trans woman, while Soloway is non-binary.)
Written by Tasha Huo (Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft), Red Sonja also features Luca Pasqualino (Shadow and Bone), Rhona Mitra (Underworld: Rise of the Lycans), Martyn Ford (Those About to Die), Michael Bisping (Den of Thieves), Phillip Winchester (Strike Back) and Trevor Eve (Waking the Dead). The film will arrive digitally shortly after its theatrical release on August 29. In the meantime, Lutz, Sheehan, and Ford will appear at San Diego Comic-Con for an exclusive signing on Thursday, July 24, at 10:45 am; you can find instructions on how to land a chance at meeting them on the official SDCC website.
A minor interjection if I may- perhaps add a “Based on the character created by Robert E. Howard”, regardless of what Roy Thomas may have said. Red Sonya who appears in a 1934 Howard story and it’s inarguable that Marvel’s Red Sonja is an adaption of this character in the same fashion Conan is. Thank you.
OK, tweaked. I think what threw me off is that Howard’s Sonya has nothing to do with Conan, she’s a character from a historical story set in the Ottoman Empire, but Sonja’s red hair as well as her name definitely reflects that she was inspired by that character.
If it weren’t for Roy Thomas, Red Sonja would have been a forgotten character that only appeared in like a paragraph of a Conan book.
@Jerome
Sonya of Rogatine wasn’t even part of the Conan galaxy when REH created her, she was supposed to be in the Renaissance time XVIth or XVIIth century if I remember from when I read the french collection of REH novels 30 years ago from french publisher NEO.
So blame it on Roy Thomas willing to plunder every bit of original REH work to save him from having to come up with an original scenario and turn it into a Conan story. We should be glad he did not repurpose Steve costigan or Bran Mak Morn and that Solomon Kane remained in his own little niche.
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