Trivia / Red Sonja

Comics

• Author's Saving Throw: Roy Thomas claims in an introduction in the first novel that Sonja's vow to only make love to a man who could defeat her but otherwise be chaste is a "conscious, willed thing. It is Sonja who sets the standard, and who will mate with the man who can best her with sword or axe. No rape here, just a set of standards strange to our modern eyes."
• Creator's Favorite: Roy Thomas has expressed this about Red Sonja.
• Dear Negative Reader: Roy Thomas said he's had to defend his Best Her to Bed Her decision to literally generations (as in multiple incarnations of twenty years) of Red Sonja fans since the Seventies.
• Divorced Installment: The owners of Red Sonja are no longer the same people who own the rights to Conan the Barbarian. Ironically, Dynamite Comics have the right to her character but not Conan and Marvel has the rights to Conan but not to Red Sonja.
• Exiled from Continuity: A soft example with Red Sonja no longer owned by Marvel comics.
• God Does Not Own This World: Roy Thomas has done work for Red Sonja in comic, novel, and nonfiction form but doesn't nor never has owned her.
• Line to God: Roy Thomas is remarkably easy to get to talk to about Red Sonja as many interviewers have found out. He has answered every question about her that fans have posed at cons, online, or via interviews.
• Network to the Rescue: Dynamite helped save the character from modern obscurity.
• Promoted Fanboy: Gail Simone said that Red Sonja was this to her.
• Word of Gay: Red Sonja had her bisexuality confirmed by Gail Simone even though the comics didn't leave much to chance.
• Word of God: Both Roy Thomas and Gail Simone have extensive things to say about their interpretations of the character as well as runs.

1985 Film

• See here.

Reboot Film

• Saved from Development Hell:
  • A new film adaptation of Red Sonja has been discussed for several years but the failure of Conan The Barbarian in 2011 shelved it. Following the success of Wonder Woman in 2017, the idea was resurrected, with Bryan Singer set to direct... then was put on hold once again in 2019 due to the sexual assault allegations toward Singer.
  • In June 2019 it was announced that Singer had been replaced by Transparent creator Joey Soloway. He quietly dropped from it afterwards, but he'll still retain writer and producer credits.
  • M. J. Bassett was then tapped to direct, and shooting of the film started in August 2022. The cast includes Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz as Sonja, Wallis Day, Robert Sheehan and Martyn Ford.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Rose McGowan was a frontrunner to play Red Sonja in a remake in the 2000s, and there was even artwork◊ produced of her as the character. She however suffered serious injuries while filming Planet Terror that meant she could be paralyzed in her right arm if it was hurt again - and the physical nature of the role meant she had to drop out of it.
  • Hannah John-Kamen was set to play Sonja but dropped out in March 2022.

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