Luc Besson has a thing for the spectacular. He doesn’t do "small." When he announced Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, it was basically the most expensive independent film ever made, a sprawling, neon-soaked fever dream adapted from the French comic series Valérian et Laureline. But honestly? Despite the massive scale and the alien ecosystems, most people only remember one specific sequence. They remember Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets Rihanna moment.
She played Bubble. A shape-shifting entertainer. A "glamopod." It was a role that felt like it was written specifically for a megastar who already shifts her persona every six months in the real world.
When the movie hit theaters in 2017, the critics were... let's say "mixed." Some loved the visuals; others thought the leads, Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne, lacked a certain spark. But when Rihanna showed up? The energy changed. It’s rare for a cameo—or an extended guest role—to hijack the discourse of a $200 million movie, but she managed it.
The Shape-Shifting Brilliance of Bubble
If you haven’t seen it lately, or you just caught the clips on TikTok, the sequence takes place in the "Pleasure District" of Alpha. Valerian is looking for information, and he ends up in a club run by a character named Jolly the Pimp, played by a very eccentric Ethan Hawke. Then, the lights go down.
Rihanna’s entrance is a masterclass in visual storytelling. She performs a dance that involves near-instantaneous costume changes—from a nurse to a French maid, to a pole dancer, to a classic cabaret performer. It was high-camp. It was pure Besson.
The technical side of this was actually insane. They didn't just put her in different outfits; they used a combination of practical filming and high-end CGI to make the transitions fluid. Bubble isn't just a woman; she’s an artist whose very biology is her medium. Rihanna isn't known as a "method actor," but there’s a vulnerability in Bubble that caught people off guard. She’s an illegal immigrant in the city of Alpha. She’s a poet. She’s lonely.
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People expected a pop star cameo. They got a character with a soul.
Why Luc Besson Bet Big on Rihanna
Besson is a fan. He’s been vocal about how he wanted her because she has this "unidentifiable" quality. You can’t quite pin her down. For a movie about a thousand planets living together, you need a face that feels universal but also alien.
"She was so natural," Besson mentioned in several press junkets during the 2017 tour. He talked about how she wasn't afraid of the green screen, which is impressive considering Bubble’s "true form" is a blue, gelatinous blob that looks like something out of a deep-sea documentary.
The budget for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was roughly $180 million to $210 million depending on who you ask at EuropaCorp. A huge chunk of that went into the rendering of the different species. But casting Rihanna was the marketing genius. It gave the film a bridge to a younger, more "pop-culture savvy" audience that might not care about 1960s French sci-fi comics.
The Criticism and the Cult Following
Let’s be real for a second. The movie didn’t do great at the box office. It made about $225 million worldwide, which, after marketing costs, is a "loss." Hollywood labeled it a flop.
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But "flop" is a boring word for a movie this ambitious. Over the last few years, a weird thing happened. Valerian became a cult classic on streaming platforms. And the conversation almost always circles back to the tragedy of Bubble.
The character doesn't survive the film. It’s a gut-punch. After helping Valerian and Laureline, she dies in a way that feels almost too small for a creature so vibrant. Some fans argue that killing off Rihanna’s character was the movie’s biggest mistake. Why bring in the biggest star on Earth just to write her out before the third act?
It’s a valid point. Some critics, like those at The Hollywood Reporter or Variety, noted that the film’s pacing stutters once she leaves the screen. It’s like the color dims a bit.
The Legacy of the Glamopod
What can we learn from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets Rihanna and her portrayal of Bubble?
First, it proved that Rihanna has range beyond the "tough girl" roles we saw in Battleship. In Valerian, she had to play a creature who was literally being used for her body and her talents, yearning for something more. There’s a scene where she recites Verlaine. It’s weird, it’s beautiful, and it’s very French.
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Second, it shows the power of the "Event Cameo." In the age of the MCU, we’re used to seeing stars pop up for a post-credits scene. But Besson gave Rihanna a full, tragic arc. He treated her like a serious actor, not just a billboard.
If you’re a film student or just a sci-fi nerd, watch that sequence again. Ignore the plot for a minute. Just look at the lighting and the way the camera moves around her. It’s a testament to the fact that even in a movie filled with 2,000 different alien species, a human performance (even one wrapped in CGI) is what sticks.
Actionable Insights for Sci-Fi Fans and Creators
If you are looking to dive deeper into this specific corner of cinema, or if you're a creator looking for inspiration, keep these points in mind:
- Study the "Big Market" Sequence: The Bubble dance is a perfect example of how to use a high-budget sequence to reveal character rather than just "showing off" tech. Every costume change represents a different facet of Bubble’s forced identity.
- Revisit the Source Material: If the movie felt too fast for you, go back to the Valérian et Laureline comics by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières. You’ll see where the visual DNA of Star Wars and The Fifth Element actually came from.
- Analyze the Casting Choice: Think about "Star Power" vs. "Character Fit." Rihanna worked because her real-life persona as a fashion icon mirrored Bubble’s narrative function as a shape-shifter.
- Watch for the Details: In the scene where Bubble dies, notice the lack of heavy music. It’s a quiet moment in a very loud movie. That’s a deliberate choice by Besson to humanize the "alien."
The movie might be a "financial failure" in the eyes of a spreadsheet, but the cultural footprint of Rihanna’s performance ensures that Valerian won't be forgotten. It remains a wild, flawed, gorgeous piece of art that dared to be different in a sea of generic blockbusters.