Bad news for the lamentations of our women today, as Variety reports that Netflix is working on a TV series based on Robert E. Howard’s iconic barbarian Conan. (Arguably, the most famous of the Barbarians, and the second-most famous of the Conans.) The series is reportedly part of a wider deal between Netflix and The Cabinet Group, the company that owns the rights to most of Howard’s literary properties, including Conan, Kull Of Atlantis (Conan, but underwater), and Solomon Kane (Conan, but he wears a pilgrim hat).
Given how long the character has been around—Howard wrote the first Conan story, “The Phoenix On The Sword,” in 1932—he’s popped up in surprisingly few TV shows or films to date. The most famous, of course, is the 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger film (and, to a lesser extent, its 1984 sequel). Jason Momoa tried to replicate Schwarzenegger’s success with a run at the character in 2011, but the resulting film was a major flop. (Maybe Momoa should have tried Kull instead, given his later affinity for powerful, wet men.) As for TV, the most major outing for the character was the animated series from the 1990s, the theme song of which will now be lodged in your head for the next, hellish week of your life. (There was also a live-action show in 1997.)
No word on what form this new Conan show might take, although presumably hitting people with swords is likely to ensue. If the deal goes through, Netflix will have the rights to develop any sorts of Conan franchises it wants, though, whether that’s in live-action, animation, or any other form (Conan: The Puppet Adventures) is still an open question.