Netflix Should Offer Zack Snyder Their ‘Conan The Barbarian’ Reboot

It was recently suggested by WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff in an interview with Variety that they don’t have plans to continue or restore the Snyderverse. Which means that Zack Snyder is finally free to make all the wacky film ideas he’s been cooking up over the last decade. He’s talked about making action film about George Washington and taking a crack at the Arthurian legend.

What’s interesting is that he’s now established a working relationship with streaming giant Netflix with his upcoming action-horror flick Army of The Dead, that is coming out on May 21, 2021.

This could mean that Snyder and Netflix will continue working on stuff in the future potentially leading to an over-all development deal at some point.

There is a newly acquired IP at the streamer that feels tailor-made for the filmmaker. As Netflix got their hands on the film and television rights to Robert E. Howard’s sword and sorcery hero Conan The Barbarian last year. The character has multiple stories written by Howard and other writers that continued Conan’s adventures over the decades including folks like Wheel of Time’s Robert Jordan.

In my opinion, there is really only one solid live-action adaptation and that is the fantastic John Milius movie from 1982 that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones. The film got made thanks in part to the books popularity in the 1970’s and the string of comic books that were published by Marvel Comics.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) – Orphaned boy Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is enslaved after his village is destroyed by the forces of vicious necromancer Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), and is compelled to push “The Wheel of Pain” for many years. Once he reaches adulthood, Conan sets off across the prehistoric landscape of the Hyborian Age in search of the man who killed his family and stole his father’s sword. With beautiful warrior Valeria (Sandahl Bergman) and archer Subotai (Gerry Lopez), he faces a supernatural evil.

I have to assume given Zack’s obsession with John Boorman’s Excalibur that something like Conan The Barbarian might also be a fantasy film that resonates with him and could be an established IP that Netflix could offer Snyder.

We’ve seen with 300 that Zack could bring something visually interesting to a mature fantasy adventure epic like Conan The Barbarian. At it’s core, the 300 comic from Frank Miller and the Zack Snyder film owes a lot to things like Conan.

The world of Conan can be a blank canvas for someone like Snyder to develop something into his own and Netflix isn’t likely going to micromanage because box office isn’t even a factor with their originals as streaming is a complete different. You can tell with his DC stuff that he’s itching to tackle something like this.

The less said about Jason Momoa’s 2011 Conan reboot the better. Since then, the actor has developed a more charismatic on-screen persona with stuff like Game of Thrones and taking on the Aquaman role. I wouldn’t be opposed to giving Jason another shot at playing Conan given that he’s grown as an actor and has an existing relationship with Snyder.

Anyways, I’m hopefully that Netflix’s interest with expanding Snyder’s Army of The Dead into their own franchise means that they’ll at least consider him for other stuff like Conan The Barbarian as it feels like it could be a good fit for him.

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