In January 2022, Bong Joon Ho began preparing his next film, Mickey 17, as the first project since his Oscar-winning Parasite helped launch him to international stardom. Since then, fans have been patiently (very patiently) waiting to see where he goes next, and it looks like the movie is one step closer to hitting theaters. Or at least we are one step closer to getting a different movie still of Robert Pattinson.
Much about the movie is still being kept quiet, but we know that Pattinson is very excited for you to see him potentially die over and over again, so it will be worth the long wait. As Pattinson so lovingly put it, Mickey 17 is “one of the funniest, bizarre sci-fi scripts I’ve ever read in my life,” so here is everything we know so far about the mysterious flick.
Plot
At CinemaCon this April, Bong said the film is about “a simple man who ultimately ends up saving the world.” That could mean many things!
Mickey 17 is based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, Mickey7. Pattinson plays an “expendable,” which is a disposable employee on a human-led mission to colonize an ice planet. Pattinson refuses to let his replacement clone take his place, and thus drama ensues. According to the novel, when one Mickey dies, another is “cloned in his place with most of his memories intact, effectively rendering him immortal.” Pattinson sure loves his immortal characters.
The director also confirmed that Pattinson dies a lot throughout the movie. “The number is the number of times he dies. I killed him 10 times more. It’s a sci-fi movie, but it’s a human story,” he explained at CinemaCon.
Cast
Pattinson stars as various iterations of Mickey, mostly Mickey 17 and Mickey 18. Mickey 17, he says, is more optimistic, while 18 is more like “playing an evil brother” who is “out of control.”
The all-star cast also includes Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, Holiday Grainger and Thomas Turgoose.
Mark Ruffalo will play a “f*cking psycopath” (his words) named Hieronymous Marshall. He told Deadline, “This guy’s like a nasty dictator, fascist, narcissist; we know the type!” Ruffalo said about his character, who’s the commander of the space colonizing mission. “He’s as bad as any of these a**holes running around today.”
Release Date
This is where things get a tricky for Warner Bros. After multiple delays, Warner Bros. set the official release date to January 31st, 2025. This is the current date they are sticking with, which caused some fan pushback.
Last month, Hollywood insider Daniel Richtman (via JoBlo) claimed that “Mickey 17 is delayed because Warner Bros. won’t let Bong Joon-ho release his director’s cut. They want to release a more ‘accessible’ version.” Meanwhile, the director said that he had already submitted the film in November 2023. So, as of right now, it should hit theaters in January. Hopefully!
Trailer
We don’t have a trailer yet, but at CineEurope last month, Pattinson and Bong Joon Ho appeared virtually to present clips from the movie, so there is footage out there, and hopefully it will be released soon.