The long-in-development Red Sonja movie has a new writer: Tasha Huo, who is showrunner and executive producer on Netflix’s upcoming Tomb Raider anime series. Transparent creator Joey Soloway is co-writing and directing the film, which is based on the sword and sorcery comic book character that originated in the pages of the Conan the Barbarian comic in the 1970s.

THR broke the news that Tasha Huo is now co-writing the Red Sonja script. Huo is showrunner on Netflix’s upcoming Tomb Raider anime, and is also a writer on the Witcher prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin. The Red Sonja movie has gone through several hands over the years. In 2008, Douglas Aarniokoski was hired to direct a Red Sonja movie, with Robert Rodriguez producing and Rose McGowan starring as the title character.

That version of the film never came to pass, but the potential movie lingered. Megan Fox was soon in the running to star in a 2011 film, and when that version never came together, either, Con Air director Simon West was mentioned as a potential new director next with Amber Heard in the lead. By now you’re probably sensing a pattern, and the West/Heard version also failed to materialize. By 2015, Christopher Cosmos was hired to write a new script – and once again, a wrench got thrown into the works, shutting things down. In 2018, Ashley Edward Miller, who wrote X-Men: First Class, was handed scripting duties.

That same year, Bryan Singer was announced to direct the film. Singer’s involvement was immediately criticized due to several allegations that had been swirling around his personal life for years. In early 2019, The Atlantic published an article in which several people who accused Singer of sexual misconduct put their accusations on record. The stories stretched back nearly 20 years, and in the wake of the article, the film was put on hold. Later that same year it was announced that Singer was no longer directing, and would be replaced by Joey Soloway.

“I can really have so much fun with Red Sonja,” Soloway said in 2019. “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.”

Accompanying this announcement that Huo is now co-writing the script is a new quote from Soloway: “I have loved Red Sonja forever and I feel so honored to help shepherd her story and start this cinematic journey. There could not be a greater moment in our world for Red Sonja’s ways of wielding power and her connection with nature and our planet. She is an ancient heroine with an epic calling, and translating that to the screen is a dream come true for me as a filmmaker. I can’t wait to collaborate with Tasha on this vision.”

Casting on the Red Sonja movie is expected to begin very soon.

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