Sonja Underworld: Viktor's Daughter and Lucian's Love

Sonja is the daughter of the vampire elder Viktor, and in underworld rise of the lycans (2009), directed by Patrick Tatopoulos, she is played by Rhona Mitra, who is billed first in the cast.

The prequel is set centuries before the events of Underworld (2003). Viktor has built a stronghold to guard his kind against the feral werewolves that roam the land, and inside its walls he keeps Lycans as servants and laborers. Lucian, played by Michael Sheen, is the first Lycan able to look human, and Viktor raises him and puts him to work as a trusted servant. Bill Nighy plays Viktor, so the two men who shape Sonja's life are played by the same two actors who play them in the original film.

Sonja matters because the whole conflict hangs on her. She and Lucian fall in love, and a bond between a vampire and a Lycan is forbidden under Viktor's rule. Viewers who start with the 2003 film hear her name only as a story told to Michael Corvin, and the prequel shows that story as it happened. If you want to see where the prequel sits among the other four films, the underworld movies in order guide puts it first chronologically and third by release, and the underworld characters page covers the rest of the cast.

Sonja's two defining relationships are with her father Viktor and with Lucian, and they pull in opposite directions. Viktor is the ruler of the fortress and the elder who sets its laws. Lucian is the Lycan he raised and put to work, and the person Sonja chooses against her father's rules.

Viktor and Sonja: Viktor is her father, and in the end he is also her killer. Underworld (2003) shows how far he will go to protect his rule, because Viktor also admits in that film that he murdered Selene's family. Seen next to Sonja's story, it suggests that his willingness to destroy those close to him was never new.

Lucian and Sonja: Their love is the reason Lucian turns from a servant into the leader of a Lycan army. The prequel presents the war as the result of that bond being discovered and punished. Lucian's later fate also connects to her, because by the time of Underworld (2003) he leads the Lycans the Death Dealers hunt, and Kraven kills him in that film.

The wider cast: Kraven appears in the prequel (Shane Brolly plays him in both the original film and the prequel), and the closing scenes lead into the opening of the 2003 film with Kraven's voice and Selene appearing briefly. For the other side of the story, see selene underworld, viktor underworld and lucian underworld. Marcus Corvinus, another elder, belongs to the same ancient order as Viktor, and his path is covered at marcus underworld.

My picks for the best Sonja scenes are the ones where the fortress itself becomes part of the drama. In my opinion, the strongest is the stretch where Lucian and Sonja meet in secret, because the film has to sell a forbidden romance in a place built to keep Lycans in their place, and it mostly does.

The second pick is the moment the lovers are discovered. It could be argued that this is where the prequel stops being a creature film and becomes a tragedy, since Lucian breaks out while Sonja is caught and punished. Rhona Mitra and Michael Sheen carry the romance, and Bill Nighy gives Viktor the cold authority that makes the punishment feel like the law rather than a tantrum.

The third is the assault on the fortress. Perhaps that is where the film delivers what the series is known for, with the Lycan army storming a vampire stronghold and Patrick Tatopoulos, who also worked on creature design for all three of the first films, putting the creatures on screen. Last, I would point to the ending that feeds into the opening of the 2003 film. It gives Sonja's story a purpose in the saga, and it makes a second viewing of Underworld (2003) land differently, because Michael's captivity scene suddenly has a face attached to it.