In a candid conversation on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, director and screenwriter Robert Rodriguez (known for Sin City and Alita: Battle Angel) has shed light on his past aspirations to bring Conan the Barbarian back to the screen.
The revelation offers a fascinating glimpse into a potential epic trilogy that ultimately never came to fruition.
During his appearance, Rodriguez divulged that he had conceived a three-film series centered on Robert E. Howard's iconic barbarian. Intriguingly, he even managed to pique the interest of legendary filmmaker James Cameron (Avatar, Terminator) in the project.
"I almost did a Conan movie. I even roped James Cameron into wanting to do it," Rodriguez stated, beginning the conversation around the 1:44:00 mark of the podcast (video below). He elaborated on their vision, explaining, "We were going to do [something similar] to what we did with [Battle Angel] Alita. I said, 'Let's do a Conan movie and we'll make it look like the paintings.' Technology wasn't there yet and I ended up doing Sin City instead."
Rodriguez further detailed his ambitious multi-film arc for the character, drawing a parallel to the James Bond franchise: "It was going to be three movies [where] he does different occupations. It was almost built as a James Bond series- it starts with him as a thief, by the second movie he's a buccaneer/mercenary, and the third one is when he becomes king. So the actor could grow with the role, like how Daniel Craig started with Casino Royale and by the end, he's No Time To Die. You have to get an actor who does the whole journey. So I had a whole trilogy marked out."
The director then revealed that he had taken his developed trilogy concept to Netflix, who had secured the rights to Conan in 2020. "Netflix had it, I went and pitched it to them and then they let the rights lapse," Rodriguez explained, indicating that his vision for a Conan adaptation did not move forward beyond this point.
To put all of this into context, James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez teamed up to film Alita: Battle Angel in 2016. It's likely that Rodriguez pitched his Conan concept to Cameron around this time, but then Netflix secured the rights to Conan in 2020. Rodriguez then pitched his ideas to Netflix, but the project never went anywhere.
As a result of this development, the Conan IP has seemingly returned to the control of Conan Properties International (CPI), a subsidiary of Heroic Signatures. CPI's primary role involves managing the extensive rights associated with Robert E. Howard's diverse creations, including Conan, Solomon Kane, and Kull the Conqueror.
Prior to Netflix, Amazon also attempted to produce a Conan TV series that ultimately never got off the ground. Given this trajectory, perhaps Disney+ or Apple TV will be the next streamer to take a shot at Conan?