Thirty years after it was last adapted for the large screen, the troubled Red Sonja reboot is finally coming out in 2025, a report suggests.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it’s taken a staggeringly long time to reboot Red Sonja. Based on the comic book character of the same name, the fantasy yarn was first adapted into a movie in 1985, with Brigitte Nielsen as the titular sword-swinging warrior.
A reboot was first talked about in 2008, and has spent the years since roaming the various circles of development hell. Bryan Singer was going to direct a new Red Sonja at one point, but then it was discovered that he’s (allegedly) an awful human being and bowed out. According to Deadline, though, the new Red Sonja has been picked up for a UK and Irish release by Signature Entertainment, and is scheduled for release in 2025. The outlet also notes in passing that the reboot has been in post-production for two years.
Directed by MJ Bassett (Solomon Kane, Silent Hill: Revelation), the new Red Sonja stars Matilda Lutz, star of Coralie Fargeat’s revenge thriller Revenge, as the flame-haired Hyborian warrior. The plot will see her encounter the tyrannical Emperor Draygan, played by Misfits and Mortal Engines actor Robert Sheehan. Among the supporting cast you’ll also find Wallis Day (who’ll play Draygan’s ‘deadly bride’, Annisia), Rhona Mitra, Ben Radcliffe and Trevor Eve.
As you’ve probably gathered, it’s been a long, long road to completion for the new Red Sonja. Besides Singer, numerous writers, directors and actors have come and gone over the years: Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man And The Wasp) was due to play Sonja earlier in the early 2020s, but she left around the time director Joey Soloway departed the production in 2022.
Red Sonja finally went before cameras in 2022, after which it entered its lengthy post-production phase. Last year, Lutz said that the film would be a departure from both the comics and the previous big-screen adaptation: “This is a completely different story, and it’s very women-empowered,” she said, “which I loved about the script.”
The synopsis, if you happen to like words in italics, goes like this:
Enslaved by an evil tyrant who wishes to destroy her people, barbarian huntress Red Sonja must unite a group of unlikely warriors to face off against Dragan The Magnificent and his deadly bride, Dark Annisia.
We’ll let you know Red Sonja’s precise 2025 release date when we get it.
