Red Sonja Movie Will Avoid the Male Gaze, Says Star

Movies

Pour one out for the male gaze. A remake – or reboot, or re-adaptation, or whatever they decide is the most marketable phrase you probably can’t find in a dictionary – of Red Sonja is on the way, and it’s going to be safe for modern audiences, if not box office returns. Actually, a new Red Sonja movie has been in the works since at least 2008, when Robert Rodriguez wanted to make it with Rose McGowan playing the title character (which sounds like it would’ve been incredible). It changed hands several times since then, with the film finally ending up at Millennium with M.J. Bassett writing and directing and Matilda Lutz as Red Sonja. But what will a movie about a sexy warrior woman from the Hyborian Age be like in the 2020s? Lutz spoke to CBR about Red Sonja while promoting an upcoming film called Magpie at the South by Southwest film festival, and you can probably guess what she said:

“So, what I can tell about Red Sonja, is that the first ones and the comics were [made] with a very male-gazed orientation.This is a completely different story, and it’s very women-empowered, which I loved about the script.”

Sounds about right, yes? However, it is a bit at odds with some comments Bassett made to The Hollywood Reporter in January 2023:

“With Red Sonja, Bassett wanted to steer clear of the obvious identity politics that audiences might expect her to bring to the table when telling a story about a female hero imprisoned by misogynistic portrayals for decades. But how do you make a movie about a powerful woman that has nothing to do with gender? ‘It’s an oxymoron, right?’ she acknowledges. Instead, she wants Sonja’s journey to be an allegory for more existential questions around the survival of the species in the face of climate change.”

On the other hand, Bassett also mentioned how the Red Sonja of the Marvel comic books and the 1985 movie “became a character for prepubescent 13-year-olds that was never accessible beyond,” and she is excising the rape that motivated the character in the comics. (This differs from the original character, Red Sonya of  Rogatino, from the Robert E. Howard story “The Shadow of the Vulture,” which took place in the 16^th century; Marvel changed the setting to pair her up with Conan, their other, more popular Robert E. Howard license.) In other words, it’s hard to know what to expect from Red Sonja; the director and star seem to agree on the necessity of avoiding the male gaze, though. My familiarity with the character is seeing the poster for the 80s movie when I was a kid and the research I did for this article. But here’s my take on it: this approach is a terrible idea. A sword and sorcery movie is a hard sell today, and it’s not going to be easy for Red Sonja to make money. It’s a very niche thing, even within a larger niche, and the first one brought in Arnold Schwarzenegger in a supporting role (and billed him ahead of star Brigitte Nielsen on the poster), and it still bombed.

However, Red Sonja does have a couple of things in its favor. M.J. Bassett directed some cool stuff, like episodes of Reacher, The Terminal List, and Ash vs. Evil Dead. Bassett also directed Solomon Kane, another movie based on a Robert E. Howard character. And it’s being backed by Millennium, a studio that’s made some good action movies. But they need to be smart about it. First of all, the budget has to be as low as possible; they need to be able to recoup their costs with as small a box office take as they can get away with. But they should also lean into that 13-year-old boy audience they seem to find distasteful. Who do they think is going to see Red Sonja? Berkley students? That’s not the bread and butter for this kind of thing; guys looking for a good time with a sexy warrior woman are. And that doesn’t mean Red Sonja shouldn’t be a badass; she absolutely should be. (And getting rid of the rape origin story is probably a good idea.) But have her embrace her sexuality, too. Make this a fun movie guys will want to see.

In other words, embrace the Sydney Sweeney philosophy.