Jill Soloway sees Red Sonja as the first bad girl superhero

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

A new take on Red Sonja, one of the greatest swords-women of the Hyborean Age, has remained stuck in development hell for quite some time, passing through the hands of various directors, but the latest to take a stab at the film is Jill Soloway, creator of Amazon's Transparent.

Soloway will write and direct what is said to be a "bold new take" on RED SONJA which will explore the powerful mythology behind the character as well as what it means to be a heroine. While speaking with Deadline, Jill Soloway expressed just how excited she is to bring RED SONJA to life.

I can’t wait. I’m super excited. I get to write it as well, which is really a dream come true. I know it feels different when you compare it to Transparent, but for me, it feels just really very much like it’s coming from the same place.

"I can really have so much fun with Red Sonja," Soloway explained. "I see her a little bit more like the first kind of bad girl superhero. Sort of like the Batman of The Dark Knight or Deadpool, you know? The world is changing so much right now for superheroes, that I just really look forward to not only going to the edge of what I’ve ever written and directed before, but to the edge of the genre as well." Soloway continued by explaining that she's "always talked about myself as doing work that attempts to heal the divided feminine in our culture, the idea that women get kind of chopped up into wife or other woman or good girl, bad girl or Charlie’s Angels or all the women on Sex in the City, and that this idea of the divided feminine means that women get like a small slice to be… All my work is really about humans searching for some divine feminine, asking these questions about God and looking for meaning. So, for me to transfer that into the world of Red Sonja felt incredibly natural, because Red Sonja is a very different kind of superhero. She’s not really typical."

As I mentioned before, RED SONJA has gone through several different hands, including Robert Rodriquez (ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL), who developed the project with Rose McGowan (GRINDHOUSE) set to star, and Bryan Singer (BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY), who was dropped from the project after a fresh batch of sexual assault allegations emerged.