Hannah John-Kamen To Play Comic Book Hero “Red Sonja” In Feature Adaptation

Variety is reporting that Hannah John-Kamen, best known as the villain Ghost in “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” will wield the sword of the comic book fantasy hero “Red Sonja” in Millennium Films’ long-gestating feature adaptation. Joey Soloway (“Transparent”) is directing the film, from a script by Soloway and Tasha Huo (a writer on Netflix’s upcoming “Tomb Raider” TV series).

Created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, Red Sonja debuted in 1973's Conan the Barbarian #23 and was partly based on the character Red Sonya from Robert E. Howard's 1934 short story "The Shadow of the Vulture." In 2013, Gail Simone rebooted the character, portraying Sonja as a warrior seeking to avenge her family by hunting down the marauders who killed them. This version of Sonja typically resorted to booze and combat to deal with the trauma from her loss. The character got her own movie back in 1985 starring Brigitte Nielsen in the title role.

The Red Sonja and Conan comics eventually left Marvel and landed at Dynamite Entertainment, which is where Millennium is basing its adaptation.

Mark Canton (300) and Courtney Solomon (After) are producing alongside Christa Campbell and Lati Grobman of Campbell Grobman Films. Topple’s Andrea Sperling and Millennium’ Yariv Lerner, Jeffrey Greenstein, Yunger, Les Weldon, Joe Gatta, and Tanner Mobley are also producing.

Millennium’s Avi Lerner, Boaz Davidson, and Trevor Short are exec producing along with Luke Lieberman on behalf of Red Sonja LLC, and Nick Barrucci of Dynamite Entertainment. Dorothy Canton is also an executive producer.

The British-born John-Kamen started her career on U.K. TV series like “Happy Valley,” “Cucumber,” and “The Tunnel.” Coincidentally, one of John-Kamen’s first breakout roles was as a character named Sonja in the “Black Mirror” episode “Playtest” with Wyatt Russell. She’s also appeared on “Game of Thrones,” “Killjoys” and “Brave New World,” and played supporting roles in the 2018 “Tomb Raider” with Alicia Vikander and in Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One.” She recently wrapped production as the lead in Sony’s reboot of the “Resident Evil” franchise from writer-director Johannes Roberts.