Conan the Barbarian is getting a new cinematic take, this time in the form of an animated series by legendary animation director Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory), a project that has reportedly been in the works since 2008.
Announced by Prime Video at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Tartakovsky will work on the Conan the Barbarian series with Cartoon Network Studios, with the 56-year-old animation director revealing during the announcement that this project is something he had been pitching since 2008.
Tartakovsky will serve as showrunner and executive producer, and joked via a video message shown at the festival that he hopes to share animatics in 2027, and the show’s rough animation in 2028. While the series is still in its early stages of development, a teaser poster featuring the titular character was revealed, alongside an official logline that reads, “After finding love in the pirate queen, Bêlit, a battle-hardened Conan defies gods, fate and even death to save her from a dark sorcery that threatens to destroy everything.”
Conan the Barbarian was originally a character created by Robert E. Howard in his 1932 Weird Tales short stories. The character then gained popularity thanks to a big screen appearance in the 1982 movie, which saw Arnold Schwarzenegger in his breakout role as Conan. The film would go on to spawn a sequel, Conan the Destroyer, in 1984, alongside a 2011 reboot starring Jason Momoa.
With this new Conan adaptation, it also poses the question of whether it will maintain the franchise’s mature themes, as historically, it has always been aimed at the adult audience, featuring lots of gore and nudity. A family-friendly animated series of the same name was released in 1992, alongside a 1994 spin-off, Conan and the Young Warriors, so it will be interesting to see Tartakovsky’s take, especially since he has experience with both series targeted at a younger audience like Dexter’s Laboratory, and more mature ones like the 2019 animated horror series, Primal.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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