Conan the Barbarian is coming to TV in a brand new series, but it won’t be with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Amazon is developing a new sword and sorcery series starring the classic hero, which along with the company’s upcoming Lord of the Rings series, represents their foray into big budget, Game of Thrones-style fantasy. The Conan series is being developed by GoT director Miguel Sapochnik, The Hand Maid’s Tale producer Warren Littlefield, and Colony co-creator Ryan Condol. The series will be unrelated to the two ’80s Conan films that starred Arnold, making the one-time planned Legend of Conan series — which was to star Schwarzenegger as an older Conan — likely dead for good.
Instead, the new series will be a more faithful adaptation to the Conan that appeared in the stories by creator Robert E. Howard that were first seen in Weird Tales magazine in the 1930s. Condal is credited as the series creator and is writing the pilot, which Sapochnik will direct. According to Deadline, the plot will be similar to Howard’s literary works starring Conan, and will see the barbarian “driven out of his tribal homelands” and left to wander “the mysterious and treacherous world of civilization where he searches for purpose in a place that rejects him as a mindless savage.” In other words, the new series sounds like it’s going to be a bit more highbrow than the ’80s films, so it’s unlikely we’ll see Conan punch a camel (that’s a good thing).
Conan was last seen on TV in the 1997 animated series Conan the Adventurer, and most recently appeared on the big screen in the poorly-received 2011 reboot film Conan the Barbarian, which starred Jason Momoa as Conan. No word yet on who could play Conan in the new series, or when the series is set to air, but we’re curious to see what a Conan the Barbarian series will look like in a post-Game of Thrones world.
