Robert Pattinson Dies and Dies Again in First Mickey 17 Trailer

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Warner Bros. has finally released a trailer for Mickey 17, the long-awaited sci-fi thriller from acclaimed director Bong Joon-ho they’ve been teasing for years.

Based on the novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, Mickey 17 follows “expendable” Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), a disposable employee on a human expedition to colonize the ice world Niflheim. When one iteration of an expendable dies, a new body is regenerated with most of the original memories intact, and Mickey is the only member of the team brave (or dumb) enough to take on this role. After multiple deaths and rebirths, Mickey has grown tired of his life, until one day he returns to find a clone of himself that has not yet been discarded. 

The tone of the first Mickey 17 trailer is a stark contrast to Bong’s previous dark thriller Parasite, a film about class politics in South Korea that earned the director four Academy Awards in 2020, including Best Picture (marking the first time a foreign language film has won the award). Mickey 17 seems like a much more light-hearted affair, its trailer soundtracked by Dean Martin’s “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” and Pattinson returning to his favorite pastime of trying on strange accents.

As the first feature to be released by Bong since the success of Parasite, and the first film starring Pattinson since his return to blockbusters in the hugely successful The Batman, much anticipation has followed the production of Mickey 17. The film has faced multiple pushbacks, as Warner Bros. initially planned on releasing the film back in March 2024 but delayed the release after production was affected by the Hollywood strikes. The studio finally landed on a January 2025 release to secure an Imax release window, which means you can watch Pattinson die a thousand deaths—or maybe just 17—on the biggest screen available. 

From a screenplay written by Bong himself and a supporting cast that includes Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo and Naomi Ackie, Mickey 17 promises high-octane, wacky action sequences and strange off-world ice creatures to kick off the new year.

Mickey 17 lands in theaters on January 31, 2025. You can watch the trailer below:

Nadira Begum is a freelance film critic and culture writer based in the UK. To see her talk endlessly about film, TV, and her love of vampires, you can follow her on Twitter (@nadirawrites) or Instagram (@iamnadirabegum).