Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Mickey 17’ Pulled From Release Schedule
No list of the most anticipated movies of 2024 would be complete (at least in my eyes) without Mickey 17, which is director Bong Joon-ho’s long-awaited follow-up to his Oscar winning Parasite. The movie stars Robert Pattinson and is a sci-fi adventure about a “disposable employee” on a space flight to an alien world. But ... is the movie still coming out in 2024? Let’s hope so.
In late December 2022, Warner Bros. announced the project with an early teaser and a release date: March 29, 2024. But now Warners has pulled the film from its schedule. According to Variety, the reason for the delay is “to allow more time to finish the project, which had been affected due to last year’s strikes and other various production shifts.”
In its place, Warner Bros. is moving up another of its big spring sci-fi films: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will now open on March 29 instead of April 12 as was originally planned. (Clearly Godzilla and King Kong worked through the actors’ strike.)
Here was that early teaser for Mickey 17. It remains really the only glimpse of the film we’ve seen to date:
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Here was the official synopsis for the novel that Mickey 17 is based on:
Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous—even suicidal—the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it. On a fairly routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. By the time he returns to the colony base, surprisingly helped back by native life, Mickey7’s fate has been sealed. There’s a new clone, Mickey8, reporting for Expendable duties. The idea of duplicate Expendables is universally loathed, and if caught, they will likely be thrown into the recycler for protein. Mickey7 must keep his double a secret from the rest of the colony. Meanwhile, life on Niflheim is getting worse. The atmosphere is unsuitable for humans, food is in short supply, and terraforming is going poorly. The native species are growing curious about their new neighbors, and that curiosity has Commander Marshall very afraid. Ultimately, the survival of both lifeforms will come down to Mickey7.
Hopefully the film is rescheduled quickly and does come to theaters some time this year. Let’s also hope that the reasons for the delay are totally logistical and not disagreements over the movie’s creative direction. Bong Joon-ho deserves to make exactly the Parasite follow-up he wants, and I’m sure every single person reading this wants to see Mickey 17 he wants to make.
