Two years before he became a superstar thanks to The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger scored the first breakout role of his career in John Milius’ Conan the Barbarian. The old school sword and sorcery movie was a huge hit at the box office and has gone on to enjoy a lasting reputation as a beloved cult classic.
A sequel followed in 1984 and for the last decade, rumors have been popping up every now and again that Schwarzenegger would finally get around to The Legend of Conan, the trilogy closing chapter that he’d always maintained was a possibility. In the meantime, we got a terrible remake starring Jason Momoa in 2011 that tanked at the box office, while Conan was also the star of two animated shows and a live-action series in the 1990s.
In 2018, it was announced that Amazon were developing Conan the Barbarian as a small screen exclusive, but it never made any sort of headway in development. However, Netflix have now stepped in and acquired the exclusive rights to the literary back catalogue, and their first order of business is to resurrect the TV show.
The streaming service have been going all-in on fantasy lately and reaping the rewards after The Witcher, Warrior Nun and Cursed all became big hits, and there’s every chance that Conan the Barbarian will follow suit. After all, the potential is definitely there for an R-rated, brutal and action-packed adaptation. There’s no creative talent attached just yet, but given Netflix’s bottomless cash reserves, it can’t be ruled out that they might just be able to tempt Arnold Schwarzenegger to show up for a passing of the torch cameo to whoever ends up being cast as the title hero.
