Late last night the first trailer for Red Sonja, Dynamite Comic’s iconic chain-mail-bikini-clad warrior brought to life by Revenge star Matilda Lutz, hit the web, and it’s time to party like it’s 2004. The trailer, which might’ve revealed a bit too much about what happens in the film, all but promises to be a nostalgic throwback to sweeping fantasy and stylized action vibes from the early to mid-aughts.
Directed by MJ Bassett (Rogue, Solomon Kane), Red Sonja follows the titular hero, who, after a disembodied voice in the trailer alerts her to the Earth bleeding, asks for the power to find those who did this, likely for revenge. We love an eco-warrior. What follows is a bunch of cuts to super important, decadently dressed, and highfalutin folks (likely the ones bleeding the Earth) looking around worried as Red Sonja frees imprisoned people and performs pretty clean leg-lock takedowns. That is until she’s knocked out and thrown into a gladiatorial arena.
From there, it’s fight, fight, fight—arena battles, land battles, you name it—as Red Sonja leads the resistance against the elite. A huge minotaur also joins the fray on the side of the royals, which will surely be the final act of the film. Before the trailer closes out, we even get a cheeky joke about how impractical her outfit is by having a shopkeeper who sells it to her during her gladiator fights simply say, “The crowd will love it.” We’ll see, movie trailer. We’ll see.
If our play-by-play of the trailer (which feels more like an Honest Trailer minus the riff tracks, with how little it kept as a surprise with where the story is going), here’s the synopsis of the film:
Captured. Chained. Forced to fight for survival. Red Sonja must battle her way through the blood-soaked pits of a tyrant’s empire and rally an army of outcasts to reclaim her freedom and take down Dragan and his ruthless bride, Dark Annisia.
While the trailer certainly looks like a throwback to a bygone era in fantasy action filmmaking, for director Bassett it was a childhood dream come true.
“I’ve wanted to make a Red Sonja movie since I was a teenager—she has been a powerful presence for me and a character that I have always wanted to bring to the screen with my own voice and vision,” Bassett wrote in a press release when the film was first announced.
Alongside Lutz, Red Sonja also stars Martyn Ford (Kingsman: The Golden Circle), Robert Sheehan (The Umbrella Academy), Wallis Day (Batwoman), Michael Bisping (Den of Thieves), Philip Winchester, Trevor Eve, Luca Pasqualino, and Rhona Mitra. The film’s script was scribed by Joey Soloway (Transparent) and Tasha Huo (Netflix’s Tomb Raider). Hopefully the film will make good on its trailer’s promise of being a movie that the crowd will love.
Red Sonja is slated to release in theaters on August 15 and on digital platforms on August 29.
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