The trailer for the long-awaited Red Sonja movie just dropped, so now seems like the perfect time to dive a bit deeper into the iconic She-Devil with a Sword's decades-long history in comics. In Fantasy comics, Red Sonja is likely surpassed in fame only by Conan the Barbarian himself. Much like Conan has a history in comic books that goes back decades, Red Sonja has been a comic book icon since the '70s, often as an ally of Conan.
Despite the association with Conan and Robert E. Howard's Hyborian setting, Red Sonja, at least in her iconic comic book iteration, isn't actually a Robert E. Howard creation. There is a clear influence owed to female fighter in Howard's 1934 historical war story The Shadow of the Vulture by the name of Red Sonya (note the different spelling) of Rogatino, to the point that Dynamite does credit Howard as a co-creator of the character. Notably, Dynamite's run of Red Sonja comics do imply that the Red Sonja of the Hyborian Age will eventually be reincarnated as Red Sonya of Rogatino, or at the very least that Red Sonya is a multiversal variant of the same character.
Originally created for the Marvel Comics run of the Conan the Barbarian series by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, Red Sonja first appeared in the 23rd issue of the Marvel Conan in 1973, eventually receiving her own series in 1975. The rights to the character were eventually acquired by Dynamite Entertainment in 2003, with the reboot of the series by writer Gail Simone being widely acclaimed and modernizing Red Sonja to define the character's origin and personality for future Dynamite storylines — though those storylines have also implied, due to the nature of comic book timelines and multiverses, that all of the previous iterations of the character continue to co-exist in parallel realities with the current incarnation of Red Sonja.
Despite sharing the Hyborian Age setting, the rights to Red Sonja and Conan are now held by different publishers. Red Sonja is published by Dynamite and has gone on to become one of their flagship properties. Conan is published by Titan Comics, which began putting out new versions of both the Conan the Barbarian comic and Savage Sword of Conan magazine in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Watch the trailer for the new Red Sonja movie now
It was announced earlier in the year that Red Sonja would be distributed in the US by Samuel Goldwyn films, with expectations of a 2025 theatrical run. Things are clearly moving forward, as the first official trailer for the upcoming movie has now gone live and a release date of August 29 has been announced for both theaters and digital.
Based on available information, the upcoming movie seems to be taking at least a few cues from the Queen of Plagues storyline, the first arc of Gail Simone's run. This can be gleaned from the brief summary included with the trailer. Dark Annisia is a major part of Red Sonja's backstory in Simone's version of the character.
"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."
Red Sonja stars Matilda Lutz as the title character, with M. J. Bassett, who previously wrote and directed the 2009 Solomon Kane, adapting yet another Robert E. Howard character, the 17th-century monster hunter, as played by James Purefoy. Although Solmon Kane struggled to find distribution, it has gone on to receive a largely positive reputation thanks to being easily available on streaming.
This upcoming movie is not Red Sonja's first movie appearance. In 1985, a cinematic take on the character starring Brigitte Nielsen hit theaters. This adaptation got bad reviews and failed at the box office. Interestingly, to reflect the fact both that Red Sonja is very much tied to Conan and that the rights to the two characters are held by different entities, Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in the 1985 movie as Lord Kalidor, a character who was Conan in all but name — and who has since been explained as Conan using an alias. That's not actually entirely unprecedented for the character. As a globetrotting adventure, Conan is established as using different alias and nicknames in different places even within Howard's own original stories.
Despite this first Red Sonja movie's largely negative legacy, the Red Sonja character herself remains so popular that there have been attempts for a cinematic reboot since at least the late 2000s. At various points, Robert Rodriguez was attached, along with Rose McGowan as the lead character, though that iteration of the project was ultimately abandoned.
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