Everything We Know About Red Sonja (2025)

Who doesn’t love a character that will threaten to cleave your head from your body with their mighty sword? The old Hercules films starring Steve Reeves up to the Conan films of the 80s showed that audiences were ready to head back to a mystical world. After the success of the Schwarzenegger Conan films, film mogul Dino de Laurentiis saw an opportunity to make a female-led film of the same genre. Red Sonja was released in 1985 and ultimately was a box office flop. Those of us who saw it as kids still loved it and put it alongside the Conan films as a trilogy. It has since gained a cult following.

Ever since then, another Red Sonja film has been in the works in some form or another and has yet to be made. This fall, we will finally see the red-haired warrior grace the big screen again, and we hope to bring badass women back to the forefront of fantasy films. Hopefully, this time around, the film will get a better reception. Here is what we know about the upcoming film.

The Long Road To Red Sonja

Multiple films by some well-known filmmakers have been in the works for quite a while, ever since the first one debuted in 1985. The biggest profile version was probably from director Robert Rodriguez in 2008. His version would have seen Rose McGowen as the title character, cutting her way across the screen with her usual bravado. By 2010, it had fallen apart, and the rights had moved to a different studio.

In 2012, there was talk of action filmmaker Simon West being brought on board the project. There was speculation that Amber Heard might be brought in to play the role. The plan was to make this a spin-off of the Jason Mamoa Conan film and begin filming before the Conan sequel. When this new Conan film bombed at the box office, the sequel and any related films were scrapped.

Then Bryan Singer was brought onto the film in 2018. When multiple men of sexual assault accused him of sexual assault, the producers stood by Singer’s side and planned to continue with the film. By 2019 Singer was dropped from the project as they could not secure a distributor with him at the helm. A few other directors and writers were attached before filming finally got underway in 2022, with M.J. Bassett leading the team.

Who’s In It?

The biggest role to fill in the movie is the title character. You need someone who can draw in the audience and make them believe that this badass woman could take on a whole medieval army with nothing but a sword and shield. She will be the focal point of the whole film, and it will rest on her performance. No pressure. The surrounding characters will have their part to play, but the movie isn’t called Red Sonja’s Friends.

Matilda Lutz as Red Sonja

This Italian actress has been brought in to play the warrior woman herself. Horror fans have probably seen her in a few roles already. She was in the third film in the American Ring trilogy Rings. What might work most in her favor for genre fans is she played the lead character in Coralie Fargeat’s (The Substance) previous film Revenge. This saw her take on a group of dude-bros who had a penchant for raping women and leaving them for dead. She gets very violent and holds her own perfectly in that film. It’s not going to be hard to believe that she can fight off a horde in this movie.

Wallis Day as Annisia and Robert Sheehan as Draygan

In order for Red Sonja to fight, there must be a couple of baddies that need a whooping real bad. Enter Wallis Day and Robert Sheehan. Wallis Day has been in numerous TV shows, including playing a face-swapped Kate Kane on Batwoman after Ruby Rose left the series. Robert Sheehan will be familiar to comic book adaptation fans as Klaus from the Umbrella Academy. Seeing how these two make Sonja’s life unpleasant will be fun.

Michael Bisping as Hawk

Former UFC fighter Michael Bisping, who we just saw in the Den Of Thieves sequel, will play Hawk. This character seems to be someone forced into gladiatorial combat and ready to escape to a free life. He has the experience as a real-life MMA fighter to lend some fun fight scenes to the movie. With his history on screen, we can probably expect some good stunts to also come out of it.

The Rest

Rhona Mitra, who, if you’ve seen Doomsday, you have to believe was in the running to play the character at some point during its decades-long trip to the screen, has been cast in an unknown role in the film. Professional bodybuilder Martyn Ford will be playing General Karlak. With a dude his size, it is easy to imagine him having some good fighting scenes. German actress Veronica Ferres is playing Red Sonja’s mom. She hasn’t done much in the U.S., but her IMDB list is long, so seeing what she brings to the role will be good.

What Is It About?

A detailed plot description isn’t available as of yet. Still, the description on the Wikipedia page says that Red Sonja has been enslaved and must bring together a group of outcasts to overthrow their captors. It seems like a take that would work well with the character. It’s a little like the story from Gladiator, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be good. Director M.J. Bassett said that when she came on board, she rewrote a lot of the script to remove some aspects that had been placed in previous scripts. Any form of rape being used as the character’s motivation or needless nudity was thrown out to give the character a more fleshed-out background.

When Can We See It?

Not long from now. Samuel Goldwyn Mayer has picked up the film for distribution. The plan is to release it by the end of the year. Other good news? It has been rated R for Strong/Bloody Violence. That means they are not planning on holding back for this one. Lots of limbs will be lost, and lots of blood will be spilled. We wouldn’t want it any other way. Are you excited to see the Red Sonja reboot in theaters this year? Let us know in the comments.

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