Is Mickey 17 based on a book?

Yes, Mickey 17 is based on the novel Mickey 7 which was written by author Edward Ashton.

Mickey 17 is a dark comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho and is all set to release on March 7, 2025. The movie is set in a fictional timeline of Earth in the future, where people gain the chance to leave Earth as expendables and travel to various planets in search of life. The movie has quite a dark comic theme to it, bringing a new version of Robert Pattinson to the big screen.

Mickey 17 is the first collaboration between Robert Pattinson and Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho. The director is also working alongside other actors like Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo, Anamaria Vartolomei, and Angus Imrie among others for the first time. The movie is set to release in IMAX which is one of the reasons why the movie was delayed from its initially claimed release date.

Is Mickey 17 based on a book?

Yes, the movie Mickey 17 is based on the novel "Mickey7" by Edward Ashton, published in 2022. The book’s narrative is a sci-fi story that dives deep into the values of identity, immortality, and humanity's quest for survival in the future. It is set in a fictional dystopian future where the titular character Mickey Barnes, a human "expendable," joins a colonization mission on the icy planet Niflheim. His job is to undertake dangerous missions on the island that often result in death, after which his consciousness is transferred into a new cloned body with retained memories.

The plot line for both the movie and adaptation is the same, introducing complications that arise when Mickey7 goes missing and the company regardless creates Mickey8, setting the stage for bringing up the exploration of existence and individuality in the story. While specific details of how closely the film follows the novel remain under wraps, the shared foundation in Edward Ashton’s narrative ensures a complex, dark-humored character-driven plot.

Why is Mickey 17’s title different from the novel?

It is apparent that the title of Mickey 17 is different from the title of the novel, Mickey 7. The director of the movie, Bong Joon-ho, took the liberty to explain why that is the case during a talk event at CinemaCon. The director claimed that he killed off the character of Mickey 10 more times than was mentioned in the book. Bong Joon-ho stated, “I killed him 10 more times, that’s why we changed it”. According to the novel, during his missions, the character of Mickey was killed 6 times and its 7 version was the one that went missing and miraculously survived his mission. Considering the director’s words, it can be said that there would be multiple unique death sequences added to the story apart from the one mentioned in the book to bring out the director’s uniqueness to the story.