Of all the upcoming comic-book movies currently in the works, there’s one in particular that’s not just an adaptation of a legendary series but also looks like it could be the most thrilling addition to the genre in some time. I’m talking, of course, about Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, set for release on July 21. The film, which stars Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne, is the most expensive ever produced in France, and is a lifelong passion project of co-producer, writer, and director Luc Besson.
Valerian is based on the French comic series Valerian and Laureline by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières, which ran from 1967 to 2010 and was a highly influential work in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. Read on to find out more about the comics and what we should expect from the film (on top of the already gorgeous special effects we’ve seen in the trailers). There will be SPOILERS from the comics, although I’ve done my best to avoid giving away too many details of Vol. 6, Ambassador of the Shadows , given this is the adventure which most heavily informs the plot of Besson’s film.
The comics follow the adventures of two spatiotemporal agents who work to protect Earth from time paradoxes in the 28th century: Valerian, a classically handsome, slightly cocky, excessively loyal (sometimes to a fault) young agent, and his partner Laureline, an 11th century woman who saved Valerian’s life and subsequently became an agent herself. Their adventures take them throughout space and time, and they’re frequently sent on missions that range from tame diplomacy to wild clashes with alien species and intergalactic spy capers.
The film appears to be centered around an intergalactic space station/city called Alpha, which more or less mirrors Central Point in the comics. It’s a point in the universe where thousands of alien races interact and exchange with one another, and is the primary setting of Ambassador of the Shadows.
Without going too deep into the more likely plot points for the film, it’s safe to say there will be some intriguing, vaguely humanist overtones to the story. This is typical of the comic series and one of the features that makes it so unique among sci-fi adventure comics (Vol. 16, Hostages of Ultralum , won the Tournesol Award for best reflecting the ideals of the Green Party). In fact, many of its plotlines, revolving around ideological differences between the humans and the alien species they encounter, can be seen as huge influences over a wide range of sci-fi/fantasy franchises, from Star Wars and Star Trek to Conan the Barbarian.
A couple of my favorite examples of this are found in Vol. 3, World Without Stars, and Vol. 4, Welcome to Alflolol . In Vol. 3, Valerian begins by getting drunk while touring a couple of newly-colonized planets, and offers to save them from certain doom caused by an off-kilter planet spinning toward them. While he sleeps it off, Laureline steers them into the planet, where they journey to the center and discover a world-within-the-world. The only two cities on this planet, Malka and Valsennar, are eternally at war. One is ruled by a class of warrior women while the other is run by delicate, aristocratic men. Think the Rick and Morty episode “Raising Gazorpazorp” with the gender roles reversed, or the extreme ideological opposite of the genderless J'naii in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Outcast”… except this came out way back in 1972.
In Vol. 4, Valerian and Laureline encounter a family of long-lived Alflololians returning home to their planet Alflolol, which in their thousands-of-years-long absence has been taken over by Earth for use as a manufacturing plant and renamed Technorog. The local government, following a code very similar to Star Trek’s Prime Directive, begrudgingly allows the natives to resettle, but then begins forcing them onto reservations. It’s tough to miss the parallels to the real-life United States’ treatment of Native Americans, and rewarding to see the two agents grapple with how to move forward while their government mistreats the aliens they’ve befriended.
Many of the stories follow along these same bittersweet, imaginative, but ultimately pragmatic lines, which is very different from culturally standard American sci-fi story conventions. We should expect to see something like this from the new film, although the overtness of the creators’ left leanings might be absent.
Part of what makes the series so immersive is the sheer amount of thought and creativity put into the various species and technologies Valerian and Laureline encounter. On a few occasions these intersect as animal species whose special properties make them useful to others who know how to use them. There’s at least one of these that we already know will be in the film adaptation, based on his appearance in the trailer: the Grumpy Converter, a tiny, irritable creature who can reproduce any currency it’s fed.
There’s also the Shingouz, an alien race who bear a more-than-striking resemblance in both appearance and character to Watto of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. They show up several times throughout the comics, usually with valuable information for the heroes. They’ve reportedly been renamed the Doghan Daguis in the upcoming film.
And while I could (happily) sit here all day picking apart the trailer and comparing various visual bits of it to parts of the comic, I’ll just cite one more, another example of biology and technology intersecting (or rather, alien biology superseding the need for advanced technology). In the comic, the massive Groubos harbor symbiotes, called Zuurs, whose telekinetic abilities are needed by the agents. The underwater chase scene from the Valerian trailer appears to show the Groubos in pursuit of the agents.
Due to the dizzyingly expansive universe of the comics, occupied by countless species on countless planets, it’s easy to forget that the titular heroes are also time-travelers. In the first collected volume, The City of Shifting Waters, Valerian is sent to New York City in 1986 to stop a time-travelling villain from altering the course of the Earth’s history. Their commitment to neutralizing, rather than interfering with, interruptions in the timeline means Valerian and Laureline are often faced with tough decisions that affect their own lives. But the time travel element also gives us fun breaks from the nearly disorienting complex of alien space adventures, as in Vol. 13, On the Frontiers , where we find our heroes on mid-century Earth, hopping between the Soviet Union, the United States, and China.
It’s not clear from the trailer how heavily time travel will be featured in the film, if at all, but given it’s a key component of the two agents’ jobs, we should expect Besson to employ it at least a couple of times in non-standard ways (personally, I’m hoping it’s not used as a deus ex machina; Galaxy Quest already nailed that time travel trope while gently satirizing it with the Omega-13).
For much of the series, Valerian comes across as somewhat bland, usually following orders from his superiors even when they conflict with his morals. Mézières and Christin intended his character to be a foil for the more capable, rebellious Laureline. The dynamics switch back and forth sometimes, eventually landing at a somewhat balanced place by the time the two become freelancers, no longer in the Spatiotemporal Service. It would be impossible to capture the long-developing aspects of their relationship in a single film, but from the looks of it, Besson has come pretty close. They’re true partners, each saving the other frequently, and they’re noticeably lacking in any tepid sexual tension (they’re Firefly’s Wash & Zoe, not Kaylie & Simon). They’re an established couple who occasionally find time to flirt in between arduous space adventures, essentially.
It’s a bit odd that Besson (or the studio, or whomever) took Laureline’s name out of the title, although the series has been referred to as just Valerian in the past; however, the quintessential egality of the partnership between the two agents will definitely be something to keep an eye out for in the new film, as it defined the comic series while setting it apart from most other sci-fi adventure stories.
There’s just no way to fit all of the spectacular space battles, alien landscapes, and gripping plotlines into one film, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, the experience of delving into the comics was so remarkable for young Besson that he’s basically been waiting his whole life to make this film. In an interview with Polygon last year, he talked of meeting with Mézières for work on his first space opera, and how the artist responded, “Why don’t you do Valerian rather than this f**king Fifth Element?” Because Besson’s latest film is a devoted love letter to the series he grew up reading, it stands to reason he wants us to read it, too.
There’s actually a lot in the comics that will look familiar to fans of The Fifth Element, particularly part three of the New Future Trilogy, “The Circles of Power.” But the entire series is filled with richly-imagined worlds that go far beyond the standard sci-fi/fantasy adventure stories that came before Valerian and Laureline. And while the creators of the comics have long sought an apology from George Lucas for alleged theft of their concepts for the Star Wars films, there is still plenty in their expansive sci-fi universe that has yet to be adapted in some way. The film will presumably also leave fans wanting more; a new hardcover edition of the comics in English is already in high demand on Amazon.com .
Have you ever read the comics? What are some of your favorite elements from them? Are you just so excited for the film that you couldn’t care less? Let us know in the comments!
Lauren is a freelance writer and artist who can be followed at @YasBruja.
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