Red Sonja

Comic book depiction of Red Sonja

ORIGIN

The character originally appeared as Red Sonya of Rogatino in only one Robert E. Howard story, 'The Shadow of the Vulture' in 1934. More a historical action setting than fantasy, Howard's creation was a 16th Century Russian mercenary in a war against the Ottoman Empire.

SONYA TO SONJA

It was the later Marvel comic book reimagining of the character by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith in 1973 that took Sonya from her historical origins, renamed her 'Sonja' and placed her in Howard's fantastical world of Hyboria alongside Conan of Cimmeria.

First appearing in issue #23 of Marvel's 'Conan the Barbarian', Sonja's revised origin has her of Hyrkanian descent. After her family is slaughtered and she is brutally raped she is given almost magical fighting skills by The Red Goddess Scáthach, in real life a famous warrior woman from Irish mythology.

THE FILM

Produced in the wake of the success of the Schwarzeneggar CONAN films, RED SONJA was a loosely-connected spin-off, with Schwarzeneggar and his CONAN THE BARBARIAN co-star Sandahl Bergman taking supporting roles but as different characters.

Statuesque Danish model Brigitte Nielsen was cast in the title role (see main image), but her inexperience showed in a flat performance and the film suffered poor reviews and box office.

Robert E. Howard's 'Red Sonya of Rogatino'

IMAGE AND CRITICISM

Although the Roy Thomas incarnation of the character became very popular and spawned a motion picture many die-hard R.E. Howard fans object to the appropriation of one of Howard's most vivid, yet under-utilised characters. The illustrated version's trademark skimpy chain-mail bikini being seen as a vulgar concession to the comic industry's over-sexualisation if its female characters.

As Howard described the character:

'She was tall, splendidly shaped, but lithe. From under a steel cap escaped rebellious tresses that rippled red gold
in the sun over her compact shoulders. High boots of Cordovan leather came to her mid-thighs, which
were cased in baggy breeches. She wore a shirt of fine Turkish mesh-mail tucked into her breeches. Her
supple waist was confined by a flowing sash of green silk, into which were thrust a brace of pistols and a
dagger, and from which depended a long Hungarian saber. Over all was carelessly thrown a scarlet
cloak.'

RED SONJA NOW AND TOMORROW

The Red Sonja character is currently being published as a monthly title by Dynamite Entertainment.

In 2008 a legal dispute over the two incarnations of the character was settled, allowing mutual use of the character and source material between Paradox Entertainment, who owns the trademark to Robert E. Howard's characters, and Red Sonja LLC, who owns the rights to the comic version of the character.

Teaser Poster

A new film version of RED SONJA was in development from producer Robert Rodriguez with Rose McGowan set to play the title role. Despite releasing some provocative promotional art (see above) It appears that this film is now dead, with a new team taking on the project.

Simon West will now direct for producer Avi Lerner, with Amber Heard being strongly pursued for the title role.

Name	Red Sonja
Gender	Female
Credited In	1 movie
Credited In	0 shows
1st Movie Credit	n/a
1st Show Credit	n/a
Alias(es)

Red Sonja

MakerBot Mystery Build: Booster Packs

FUSHIGI YUGI - - My First Anime Experience