Arnold Schwarzenegger Promotes the New CONAN THE BARBARIAN Comic and He Still Wants to Make That Sequel
Arnold Schwarzenegger took to Instagram to show his support for Marvel’s new Conan The Barbarian comic book, which features the legendary actor on the cover.
The comic book comes from writer Jason Aaron (The Mighty Thor) and artist Mahmud Asrar (All-New, All-Different Avengers) and here’s the synopsis:
From an age undreamed…hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet… Robert E. Howard’s creation returns to comics, in an epic tale as only MARVEL could bring you! Conan’s travels have brought him to the far reaches of the unkown, from his birthplace in Cimmeria to the kingdom of Aquilonia and all in between. As his fighting prowess allows him to carve his way through life, so too does it attract the forces of death! The all-new ages-spanning saga begins here
Schwarzenegger says in the video:
“This is a fantastic comic book. Look at this. Conan the Conqueror, wow. This almost looks like me. But this one… definitely looks like me. It’s a movie that I wanted to do for a long time. Let’s do it.”
The movie that he’s talking about is the Legend of Conan, a sequel to the classic 1982 film which left off with an older King Conan sitting on his throne, deep in thought, wearing the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon his brow.
The script for the film was written by Chris Morgan, and this is a little tease of how the movie would open:
“It opens with this [hand on the chin]. It’s where you have to. It’s the sequel that we were promised and never got. I’m 11 when my father took me to see Conan the Barbarian which you should never take an 11-year-old kid to. It was a life changing thing. It’s an unbelievable movie. It comes back to [director John] Milius, right? There’s nobody better and it’s a real movie. It’s a truthful movie. Chris and I from the very beginning said there’s no reason to do it unless it’s a worthy sequel to Milius’s Conan and I think we’ve got that. I really do.”
The movie would have ignored Richard Fleischer's 1984 Conan The Destroyer and the 2011 reboot with Jason Momoa. Morgan previously talked about Conan author Robert E. Howard and the inspiration behind the movie, saying:
"We look at all the source material and we love things that kind of speak to that tone. We’re incredibly respectful to Howard. I’m a huge fan of the stories and books, but I’m a super-huge fan of the first movie, because that crystallised and distilled it all for me. [John] Milius just killed it. He did such a good job. And Legend Of Conan is really resonant and it really digs into the legacy of that original film. I'm already very proud of it."
Morgan also previously described his version of Conan, which is initially what got me super excited for this project:
"I want the warrior whose joints have started to fuse together, who has to crack the cartilage so he can pick up a sword again. I want the guy who’s not necessarily lost a step, but there’s some rust he has to shake off. I want to embrace that. It makes it a greater hero story.
"Conan needs to be faced with challenges. The greatest challenge to him isn’t the armies that are set before him. It’s, on some level, self-doubt, a little bit of slowing down and forcing yourself to be heroic beyond what people expect of you. What I don’t want is for him to step back in and look the same. That would defeat the purpose of our story. "
For more details on the film that will never happen, you can read some information here and here.
Unfortunately, two years ago we learned that the movie was dead. Arnold’s obviously not ready to give up on it though, which is great, because I need to see this movie get made! In the meantime, I’ll check out the comic book.