This morning brought the surprise news that Conan the Barbarian is headed for television and that the sword and sorcery series has found a home at Netflix. According to the report, the streamer is developing a live-action TV series featuring the Robert E. Howard character. There was no word as of the announcement about who would be the driving creative force behind the show and it was reported they’re searching for a writer/showrunner and directors for the new series. However, Netflix apparently had one already lined up in former Daredevil showrunner Steven DeKnight who confirmed he was attached at one point.
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“Sad but true: I was attached to spearhead this before Netflix and I parted ways,” DeKnight tweeted after it was pointed out he should take on the property. The Pacific Rim: Uprising director was previously signed on to an overall deal at the streamer in 2018 which lead to him leading the adaptation of Mark Millar’s Jupiter’s Legacy. DeKnight departed that series, and his Netflix deal, in September of 2019.
Conan on the other hand could apparently be a big property for Netflix moving forward. Today’s announcement of the series comes from Fredrik Malmberg and Mark Wheeler’s Pathfinder Media, and will be the first of many between Netflix and Conan Properties International(owned by Malmberg’s Cabinet Entertainment). Apparently this deal gives Netflix the exclusive option to use the Conan literary library and develop both TV shows and films from the various books.
Created by writer Howard in 1932, the first Conan short stories were published in Weird Tales magazine. The character would gone on to be featured in comics, film, television, video games, and further novels. Perhaps the most famous version of Conan worldwide is the one played by Arnold Schwarzenegger on the big screen in the 1982 feature film directed by John Milius. He would follow it up with Conan the Destroyer in 1984. In the years since Schwarzenegger has been vocal about hoping to revisit the character as King Conan, but it’s failed to materialize.
Aquaman himself Jason Momoa went on to star as Conan in a 2011 film reboot, now a notorious flop by Hollywood reboot standards. The character has previously appeared on television in two animated TV shows and a short-lived live-action series, Conan the Adventurer, in 1997. A Conan TV series was previously announced to be in development at Amazon Prime Studios in 2018, but that clearly didn’t go very far with the Netflix news.
In any event, there are many tales of Conan and this story shall also be told.
