While it was announced back in 2018 that Duncan Jones would be directing a Rogue Trooper movie, the new announcement of the animated film’s full cast finally makes it concrete that the classic 2000 AD character is coming to our screens. But if your only knowledge of the long-running British sci-fi comic is Judge Dredd, then you may need a little primer to get you ready for Rogue Trooper’s unique brand of pulpy war drama.
Who is Rogue Trooper, and why is he one of science-fiction’s coolest blue people? Let’s break down the history of this tragic war hero and how the film may tell his story. We’ll cover:
- Who is Rogue Trooper?
- What is a Genetic Infantryman?
- The Quartz Zone Massacre
- The Traitor General
- Mr. Brass and Mr. Bland
- Venus Bluegenes
Who is Rogue Trooper?
Created by writer Gerry Finley-Day and artist Dave Gibbons in 1981 for 2000 AD, Rogue Trooper is a Genetic Infantryman (GI), one of a number of enhanced humans bred to fight in a seemingly endless war. Instantly identifiable thanks to his blue skin, Rogue is the last male of his kind; all of his other brothers-in-arms were killed in an ambush known as the ‘Quartz Zone Massacre’.
While no other GIs remain, Rogue is accompanied on his missions by three of his former squadmates – Bagman, Gunnar, and Helm – whose personalities and memories have been preserved as digital entities. Each GI’s mind is stored on a “biochip”, a technology that can interface with many forms of equipment. Rogue uploads the minds of his allies into his own gear, and as a result his backpack, gun, and helmet talk to him constantly during his adventures.
In the upcoming movie, Rogue is played by actor Aneurin Barnard, who you may recognise from Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. As for his equipment comrades, Jack Lowden voices Gunnar, Daryl McCormack plays Helm, and Reece Shearsmith is Bagman.
What is a Genetic Infantryman?
Rogue and the other Genetic Infantrymen were created to endure the harsh conditions of Nu Earth, one of many planets upon which a perpetual war between the Norts and Southers is fought. The GIs were the invention of the democratic Southers in an effort to gain the upper hand against the fascist Norts.
Use of chemical and biological weapons by both sides has made Nu Earth near inhospitable, and the population is forced to wear protective “chemsuits” to survive. Genetic Infantrymen can survive the toxic landscape without such bulky and restrictive suits thanks to their immunity to practically every toxin known to humanity, including choking, psycho, and nerve agents. Their genetic engineering also provides significantly increased stamina, allowing them to sprint without rest for sixteen hours.
Thanks to their minds being programmed onto biochips, Genetic Infantrymen are effectively immortal. If the biochip of a killed GI is returned to the Southers’ scientists on Milli-Com (a huge, Death Star-like artificial planet that acts as the faction’s headquarters), it can be uploaded into a new body.
The Quartz Zone Massacre
The Genetic Infantrymen were created in the hope that they would bring an end to the war’s long-running stalemate. In something of a Hail Mary move, the Southers deployed its entire GI regiment in a single assault, dropshipping them all into an arctic-like region called “The Quartz Zone” as part of what was intended to be a surprise attack on the Norts. However, the enemy was fully prepared for the attack, and deployed a variety of elite infantry units in order to quickly obliterate every single Genetic Infantryman. Only Rogue (and the biochips of Bagman, Gunnar, and Helm) escaped. This disaster would become known as the Quartz Zone Massacre.
But how did the Norts know to expect the attack? Well, they were tipped off by a Souther military official who was overseeing the war on Nu Earth. His name has never been revealed, and so he’s known only as The Traitor General.
The Traitor General
Once a high-ranking Souther commander, The Traitor General believed that the galaxy-wide war between the two factions was a pointless and impossible conflict. He believed it distracted from the true threat – aggressive alien species – and so he proposed that the Southers submit to the Norts and allow their enemy’s strong leadership to wage a campaign against the aliens. These beliefs saw the Traitor General demoted and put in charge of the war on Nu Earth.
In revenge for his demotion, the Traitor General informed the Norts all about the Genetic Infantrymen’s planned assault on the Quartz Zone. When Rogue learned of this betrayal, he went AWOL and began a long personal mission to hunt down the Traitor General and take his revenge. This storyline formed the basis of the original Rogue Trooper comic run, which began in 1981 and concluded four years later.
Mr. Brass and Mr. Bland
The Rogue Trooper comics have a wide and varied supporting cast, many of whom may appear in the new film. If we were to place bets, though, then we’d gamble money on Mr. Brass and Mr. Bland showing up. A couple of absolute scumbags, Brass and Bland are body looters attempting to make a large fortune from stolen treasures.
Brass is a Nort computer expert, while Bland is a Souther money man. Having abandoned their former factions, the pair work together to roam the battlefields of Nu Earth and scavenge any valuables. In their first encounter with Rogue they realise that all his unique Milli-Com GI equipment could net them a significant pay day, and so the duo become one of Rogue’s regular adversaries (they need him dead, of course, in order to loot his corpse).
Venus Bluegenes
While the GIs deployed to the Quartz Zone were all male, Milli-Com also engineered a batch of female Genetic Infantry. Despite their enhanced combat capabilities, rather than being deployed to the frontlines these women were assigned non-combat roles at Milli-Com.
One of those female GIs is Venus Bluegenes, another prominent Rogue Trooper supporting character that we expect to appear in the film. Venus has feelings for Rogue, and arranged for additional shock protection to be installed in the capsule he’d ride down to the Quartz Zone – a move that would save him from the subsequent massacre.
Venus would eventually make it to the frontlines of Nu Earth, both within the pages of Rogue Trooper’s comic and her own solo run. If she does appear in the film, we’d expect her to once again be Rogue’s love interest, but also take on the more fleshed-out character traits she developed across her solo series.
As the first ever Rogue Trooper film, we expect Jones’ script and direction to focus on the classic origin story for Rogue and his biochip buddies. The Quartz Zone Massacre and the hunt for the Traitor General are almost certain to be the main plot threads, but it remains to be seen if Jones’ will stick to the chronological events of the original run, or combine story elements from many different issues of 2000 AD. We’ll no doubt find out more as new details and trailers emerge as we move closer to the expected 2025 release date.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
All content and images belong to their respected owners. This article is aggregated for informational purposes only with full credit to the source.
