Bong Joon Ho wanted to 'print out Robert Pattinson again and again' in Mickey 17
Vivian Rashotte | CBC Arts | Posted: March 7, 2025 8:48 PM | Last Updated: March 7
The Oscar-winning director joins Q’s Tom Power to discuss his long-awaited follow-up to Parasite
It's been nearly six years since Bong Joon Ho released his Oscar-winning film Parasite, and now the South Korean auteur is back with his highly anticipated follow-up, Mickey 17.
Based on the novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, the film is a dystopian dark comedy that asks an interesting and disturbing question: what if humans could simply be duplicated, or "reprinted," when they die?
Robert Pattinson stars as the "expendable" Mickey Barnes, an employee of a space colony who's forced to die over and over again as he undertakes lethal assignments in the name of progress.
WATCH | Official trailer for Mickey 17:
"It's such a cool concept," Bong tells Q's Tom Power in an interview alongside his translator, Sharon Choi. "But if you think about it, 'human printing,' these two words, these two concepts should never really go together…. You sense that this technology has zero respect for human beings. And so I thought that this concept really encompassed a lot of comedy and also tragedy at the same time."
Beyond its fascinating concept, Bong says he also just saw a lot of appeal in reprinting Pattinson over and over again.
"To think about Robert Pattinson getting printed again and again was so funny and also sad," the director says. "I honestly just wanted to print out Robert Pattinson again and again. He has such a printable look."
I thought that this concept really encompassed a lot of comedy and also tragedy at the same time. - Bong Joon Ho
Like his biting class satire Parasite, Bong's new film has plenty to say about the world we're living in. Mickey 17 is essentially a story about space colonization and the rise of authoritarian governments. Mark Ruffalo's performance as Kenneth Marshall, a vain, populist politician who runs the colony, has drawn comparisons to past and present politicians, from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to U.S. President Donald Trump.
"I think it's just that bad politicians, they just circulate throughout history," Bong says. "They have different faces. They come out in different names, but the essence of what it is to be a bad political leader kind of remains the same."
The full interview with Bong Joon Ho is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Bong Joon Ho produced by Ben Edwards.