Conan the Barbarian TV Series In Works At Amazon

[Enterprise is Great]

deadline.com

Amazon is developing drama series Conan, based on the books by Robert E. Howard, Deadline has learned. The project hails from Colony co-creator Ryan Condal, Game of Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik, Fargo and The Handmaid’s Tale executive producer Warren Littlefield, Pathfinder Media and Endeavor Content.

Condal admits to having a personal obsession with the material, which Sapochnik also has been a longtime fan of, leading to their collaboration on the project with the creative goal to return to the original Howard literary works and produce a series that is faithful to the spirit of his Conan character.

Most of my Conan knowledge comes from the Arnold Schwarzenegger films, the old Marvel comics and some novels by Robert Jordan. i don't think Ive ever read anything by Robert E. Howard. If I have it was so long ago that I forgot. i did watch some of the Ralf Moeller tv series but that was pretty bad.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

This looks to be the adaptation I always wanted and dreamed of (I wonder if they'll get Charles Dance to do the "Know, o Prince..." voice-over for the main titles). Which means, Amazon will get me after all my resistance.

 

[Skywalker]

A high-budget TV series is definitely the way to go. There's enough material out there in Howard's completed stories, unfinished works and notes to fill a few seasons.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Most of my Conan knowledge comes from the Arnold Schwarzenegger films, the old Marvel comics and some novels by Robert Jordan. i don't think Ive ever read anything by Robert E. Howard. If I have it was so long ago that I forgot. i did watch some of the Ralf Moeller tv series but that was pretty bad.

The Howard stories are more "weird fiction" than the movies but I think some of the old comics captured some of that or even adapted some of the stories. There are some nice omnibus collections of the Howard stories, I have a nice thick one that was my introduction and it looks like there's some nicely priced Kindle editions if you were inclined to explore.

The less said about the Ralf Moeller series the better.... Though maybe we need more goofy 90s syndicated type shows when the world seems bleak sometimes.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I wonder whether they'll do an anthology series jumping around in continuity like the original REH stories, or whether they'll go the route of the Marvel and Dark Horse comics and most of the early book editions of trying to arrange it all in a chronological order.

I'd love if they actually went with the anthology approach, maybe even using different actors for Conan at different stages in his life (teenager for stories like "The Tower of the Elephant" and "The Frost Giant's Daughter", thirty-ish for most of the stories, and a fifty-ish one for the King of Aquilonia stories). But that might be too much to hope for.

One thing they should try and get the rights to from the Schwarzenegger movies is the music by Basil Poledouris. Too bad he's not around anymore to do the score himself.

 

[Greg Cox]

One thing they should try and get the rights to from the Schwarzenegger movies is the music by Basil Poledouris. Too bad he's not around anymore to do the score himself.

Amen.

And, yes, this has to be better than the previous CONAN tv series. Don't forget, there was a Saturday morning cartoon as well. (Which I still think of "Conan and the Conan Kids," which I don't think was actually the title.)

 

[Captain Craig]

Amazon...you have my attention!

 

[JD]

My only experience with Conan is the first Swarzenegger movie and the Momoa movie, but I'm always up for more sword and sorcery series.
Amazon is building up quite the line up of SFF stuff, we've got Man in The High Castle, The Tick, PDK's Electric Dreams, the Lord of the Rings series, and now this.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

You know, the timing is quite the coincidence for me.

I've been doing a Conan deep-dive for about two months now, reading the original REH stories, planning on following that up with reading the Savage Sword and Dark Horse comics, and watching the movies, currently making my way through the Ralf Moeller series (which is fun in its own way, it's just not really Conan), and I'm planning to follow that up with the animated shows ("Conan the Adventurer" and "Conan & the Young Warriors").

I'm also working through some of the "knock-offs" from the 1980s, thus far having selected "Fire & Ice" and the first "Deathstalker" as my favorites. But I still got flicks like "Beastmaster" and "Throne of Fire" to watch.

So, yeah, proper deep dive. And after going into this deep dive, first there was the news of Conan comics switching to Marvel, and now the news of this show. Of course, pure coincidence, but it still feels funny to me.

 

[bigglesworth]

Ooohh... this sounds cool. My familiarity with Conan are the movies and a couple episodes of the Ralf Moeller series. Never read any of the novels, but I did read some of the comics as a kid. I don't recall who published them, only that they didn't have color and featured nudity (my younger self loved that).

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Ooohh... this sounds cool. My familiarity with Conan are the movies and a couple episodes of the Ralf Moeller series. Never read any of the novels, but I did read some of the comics as a kid. I don't recall who published them, only that they didn't have color and featured nudity (my younger self loved that).

That would most definitely be "Savage Sword of Conan" published by Marvel. As it was published as a magazine it didn't need to adhere to the rules of the Comics Code.