After making history with the first foreign language movie to become an Oscar Best Picture winner, Bong Joon Ho is set to return with an all-new movie, Mickey 17, teaming up with Robert Pattinson to bring an acclaimed sci-fi novel to the big screen.
That novel is Mickey7 by Ashton Edwards, which was released in 2022. A sequel, Antimatter Blues has also already been published, so if the movie proves to be a hit, there's potential for Hollywood to have a new sci-fi series on its hands.
But let's not put the cart before the horse. Here is everything you need to know about Mickey 17.
Mickey 17 release date
Mickey 17 is going to be among the first new movies of 2025, with it receiving a wide release on January 31, 2025. That'll cover the US and UK, but audiences in Bong Joon-Ho's native South Korea will get it a few days earlier, on January 28.
There was the expectation that Mickey 17 would be released in March 2024, but Warner Bros. pulled the movie from its release calendar, with reports suggesting it was because of delays caused by the actors and writers' strikes that took place in Hollywood in 2023.
Mickey 17 cast
Robert Pattinson headlines the cast of Mickey 17. He plays a character sent on an expedition to colonize an ice planet, however, he is deemed "expendable," a disposable employee who has plenty of clones to replace him in case something goes wrong. Pattinson first broke out in two major YA literary adaptations, Harry Potter and Twilight, but in recent years has been seen in movies like Good Time, High Life, The Lighthouse, Tenet and The Batman. He most recently lent his voice for the English-language dubbing of The Boy and the Heron.
Other members of the Mickey 17 cast include Naomi Ackie (Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody), Steven Yeun (Beef), Toni Collette (The Staircase) and Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things), though there are no details on what role any of them are playing.
Mickey 17 plot
Bong Joon Ho wrote the screenplay for Mickey 17. Here's the synopsis from Warner Bros.:
"From the Academy Award-winning writer/director of Parasite, Bong Joon Ho, comes his next groundbreaking cinematic experience, Mickey 17. The unlikely hero, Mickey Barnes has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living."
The trailer, available below, also reveals that things get complicated when Mickey 17 doesn't actually die, but his bosses have already created a new Mickey. Complications ensue.
Books readers will note that the original novel was title Mickey7, so with Mickey 17 it's clear we're getting a few more deaths for poor Mickey.
Mickey 17 trailer
The official trailer for Mickey 17 is here, featuring Dean Martin's "Kick in the Head" and a multitude of ways that Robert Pattison ends up dying as an "expendable." Watch it right here:
Bong Joon Ho movies
Even before South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho won an Oscar for 2019's Parasite, he was a well-established name both in Hollywood and the international film market. Mickey 17 will mark his ninth feature directing job since 2000. Here is his full list of credits over the last 24 years:
- Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)
- Memories of a Murder (2003)
- The Host (2006)
- Tokyo! (2008)
- Mother (2009)
- Snowpiercer (2013)
- Okja (2017)
- Parasite (2019)
