World premiere at the Annecy Film Festival 2026, the animated feature Rogue Trooper from Duncan Jones has just faced its very first reviews. The long-awaited project has drawn enthusiastic responses.
Hollywood’s elusive project, Rogue Trooper, had been languishing in Duncan Jones’s development slate since 2019. Marked by the brutal flop that crushed both commerce and critics for Warcraft: The Beginning, the British filmmaker threw himself into adapting this sci‑fi graphic‑novel cornerstone published by 2000 AD (the home of Judge Dredd), originally co‑created by Gerry Finley-Day and the legendary Dave Gibbons (Watchmen).
Rogue Trooper follows the troubles of designation 19, a blue-skinned soldier who turns out to be the sole survivor of a planetary invasion. Discovering that he has been betrayed, 19 embarks on an obsessive quest for vengeance to take down the general who sold him out to the enemy. Accompanied by the ghosts of his three fallen comrades, this blue‑skinned action hero slugs through the hell of war, takes down countless foes, rescues a few, in a vast carnage. Premiered at Annecy, the film has drawn a very warm reception.
Rogue Trooper: From Out of Nowhere
« As in most war films, the reality on the ground for soldiers is very different from the perspective of command. And when Rogue starts to suspect a traitor within their ranks has sent his squad behind enemy lines, he decides to… well, go it alone.
From there, the film becomes a fantastical journey à la Apocalypse Now, a river voyage through the hell of war that plunges the protagonist into a succession of delirious sequences populated by grotesque figures. It’s an opportunity to meet Diane Morgan, Jemaine Clement, and especially Hayley Atwell (in the ultra-badass role of Venus Bluegenes) like you’ve never seen them.” Deadline
“Not everything is perfect, but there is a lot to praise in this film. If it serves up its share of explosive space battles and distinctly British banter, it also offers a critique of the economic cynicism fueling these endless, absurd wars.” Screen Daily
« Presented with great fanfare yesterday, the film initially astonishes with its animation. Four years of virtuoso tweaking, a hybrid pipeline (Unreal 5.3 for rendering and Maya for animation) and a distinctly British budget to bring this hybrid project to life. Visually very photorealistic yet at the same time highly stylized, the film sits halfway between Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly, Zemeckis’ Beowulf, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and cinematic sequences like The Matrix Awakens. It’s, in a word, undefinable. » Première
« It’s a movie packed with giant robots, blue soldiers, and gigantic crystals shooting out of the ground, simply because it looks incredibly impressive. You could easily imagine some of the film’s frames airbrushed onto the side of a van or the sleeve of a late-70s heavy metal album.
Not everyone will love it. But the film’s freewheel energy (take it or leave it), its endearing characters, and visuals that are frankly stunning—crafted with a fraction of the usual Hollywood budget yet as lavish and detailed as any multi‑hundred‑million blockbuster—make Rogue Trooper a one‑of‑a‑kind, admirable artifact. A movie you’d almost be ready to go to war for.” » The Wrap
The press is not shy in hailing this jaw‑dropping visual spectacle, with early reviews praising an eccentric art direction and a futuristic war film that manages to recapture the punk vibe of the source material. The hybridization of animation techniques yields a unique visual footprint, heralded as entertainment that never talks down to its audience.
However, some reviews flag pacing that can feel a touch off at times. The radical eccentricity of the retro-British tone and the narration compressed into monologues may rattle viewers unfamiliar with this particular universe. Not a dealbreaker, given the filmmaker’s artistic sincerity and the energy he has rekindled from his early days.
To bring this vengeful odyssey to the screen, Duncan Jones has assembled a monstrous voice cast: Aneurin Barnard as N°19, supported by Hayley Atwell as Venus Bluegenes, with Sean Bean, Matt Berry, and Asa Butterfield. For the moment, Rogue Trooper still has no official release date. Here’s hoping this Annecy showcase serves as a springboard toward a theatrical run.
