Netflix Is Developing A Conan The Barbarian Show

The barbarian warrior Conan is one of the most recognisable figures in fantasy fiction, and he has been brought to the the screen several times in the past. It's now been reported that Netflix is developing a new live-action Conan show. And no, Arnold Schwarzenegger won't be playing the barbarian.

As reported by Deadline, the Conan series is the first result of a new deal between Netflix and Conan Properties International, which owns the rights to the character. The deal gives the streaming giant the option to adapt the many Conan novels and stories, across film and TV as both live-action and animated projects. The site states that Netflix is now looking for a showrunner for the series.

Conan was created by Robert E. Howard, and first appeared in a story in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales in 1932. Howard wrote more than 20 subsequent Conan stories before his death in 1936, and since then a variety of other writers have published stories and novels about the character.

The first screen adaptation was 1982's Conan the Barbarian, which starred Schwarzenegger, which was followed by Conan the Destroyer two years later. In 2011, Aquaman star Jason Momoa played the character in a movie also titled Conan the Barbarian. There was also the live-action series Conan the Adventurer in the '90s, and an animated series titled Conan and the Young Warriors.

The Conan show will be the latest high-profile fantasy property to be adapted by a streaming company. Season 2 of Netflix's The Witcher is in production in the UK, while shooting is about to resume on Amazon's Lord of the Rings show in New Zealand. Amazon is also a producing a series based on Robert Jordan's hugely popular Wheel of Time novels.