
Red Sonja and the New Trailer
I’ve briefly mentioned Red Sonja in my post about Red Sonja vs. Army of Darkness. For those of you who don’t know who she is, well… it’s complicated.
Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian, had a character named Red Sonja of Rogatino that was featured in a story called The Shadow of the Vulture. She had fiery red hair, but no connection to Conan nor the universe in which he existed.
In 1973, Roy Thomas, the comic book writer who pretty much single handedly brought Conan the Barbarian back to the masses through his adaptations in both Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan decided to create a character, with red hair named Red Sonja who was inspired by Red Sonja of Rogatino. She debuted in Conan the Barbarian #23 and officially entered the Hyborian Age.
So, in a nutshell, she is an original character, created by Roy Thomas in the 70s, inspired by a character of the same name created by the original creator of Conan the Barbarian in the 1930s, but who had nothing to do with Conan the Barbarian nor the world in which he existed.
To complicate matters further, at one point both the owners of Conan and the right holders of Roy Thomas’ character Red Sonja, battled it out in court over copyright and trademark issues. In the end, a settlement was reached where each company would pay each other $1 a year. The owners of Conan obtained the print rights to the original story featuring the character Red Sonja of Rogatino, and the owners of Red Sonja would be able to continue setting Red Sonja’s story in The Hyborian Age of Conan the Barbarian.
Folks outside of the sword and sorcery book and comics world, probably know her best from the 1985 movie starring Brigitte Nielsen as the title character. The previously mentioned rights issues also flared up during the production of this film. Arnold Schwarzenegger was brought in to do a cameo as Conan, but when they couldn’t secure the rights, they turned him into a character who was well… Conan-like, or maybe better described as Conan-lite. The cameo he agreed to kept getting expanded as they kept adding scenes for him, and well… the movie is a mess.
Red Sonja occasionally crosses over with Conan in the comics, but for the most part she is her own separate character. Her current comics are published by Dynamite, while Conan is published by Titan. The amazing comic writer Gail Simone breathed new life into Red Sonja a few years ago and rewrote her origin story which was well… brutal. There was an attempt to cover her up more, since the chain metal bikini is a constant source of jokes, but the more they covered her up, the less folks bought the book. So, the bikini was embraced once more.
It’s worth noting that the character of Conan the Barbarian looks nothing like what you see in the Frank Frazetta covers or like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not only is he described as being leaner and athletic, but he wears clothes, often! In some ways, I think the whole bodybuilder, scanty clad dress of sword and sorcery characters (male and female alike) do hinder the growth of the genre, but its also now become a common trope, and to remove it, seems to rob the genre of something that has evolved to define it.
Sword and sorcery movies are rare these days, having experienced their prime during the 80’s following the success of Conan the Barbarian. Sadly, if you did not grow up with these films, it can be a challenge to enjoy them. Most of them are campy and have not aged well at all, so I’m always excited to see a newer sword and sorcery production. Arguably the film I like the most is Solomon Kane, another Robert E. Howard creation, which was given a movie adaptation in 2009, helmed by M.J Bassett. Ms. Bassett did an amazing job with the script and the direction of the film, especially considering the extremely troubled production. I love the music and the vibe, and I’ve watched the movie a couple of times over the past year.
So, when a new Red Sonja movie was announced, I was concerned until I saw that Ms. Bassett was directing the film. Instantly, it gave the movie credibility to me, and despite a delayed release I’ve held out hope for a decent flick. I can’t see something like Red Sonja upending the box office, but if the filmmakers can put together a decent modern sword and sorcery film, I think it could add a little boost to the genre as a whole.
This morning, the trailer for Red Sonja finally debuted, and well… it’s about what I expected. It’s hard to figure out what the story is, but I was impressed by the CGI in the film and the grand scale of the feature. In comparison, Solomon Kane was a much smaller production, in terms of scope, but Red Sonja feels huge, with huge fight scenes and giant creatures.
The movie looks cheesy, but that is part of the pulp appeal to me. I don’t need a deep dive into the psychological trauma of Red Sonja battling her way for respect in a man’s world. I just want to see her cutting the heads off of demons and kicking serious ass. The trailer makes me think I’m going to get what I want, and that makes me happy.