You could argue that, after Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper might be the second most famous character from 2000AD. It is a passion project for Moon, Warcraft, and Source Code director Duncan Jones.
Jones has made the unusual decision to use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 to create the animation for a feature adaption, and now the first images from the project have dropped via Empire magazine.
Rogue Trooper is set on Nu Earth, rendered a toxic wasteland by an ongoing war between the fascist Norts and the democratic Southers. It follows a “Genetic Infantryman” named Rogue who was specially engineered for battle in the planet’s poisonous atmosphere.
When his unit is sold out and left for dead by a traitor in their midst, he is the only survivor. He sets out to take revenge on his betrayer and is accompanied by a sentient gun, rucksack, and helmet imbued with the personalities of his now-dead former squadmates, uploaded to the equipment.
The cast includes Hayley Atwell, Jack Lowden, Reece Shearsmith, Sean Bean, Asa Butterfield, Daryl McCormack, Diane Morgan, and Alice Lowe. Matt Berry and Jemaine Clement will play a pair of villains.
The project is from Rebellion Developments, a studio set up to adapt 2000AD properties for film and TV.
There is no news on a release date or potential distribution strategy yet, so Rogue Trooper may go to a streamer or potentially get a theatrical release.
The original Rogue Trooper story ran from 1981 until 1985, then had a short side run with a diverging storyline until 1989. After some reboots, in July 2013, American company IDW Publishing announced that, after the success of its adaptation of Judge Dredd, it would now champion Rogue Trooper with recoloured old issues as well as completely new stories.
These were also issued as trade paperbacks.
