Animation emperor Genndy Tartakovsky has announced his next big project. He’s working on an adaption of Conan The Barbarian for Cartoon Network Studios and Amazon Prime.
The idea might sound a little…redundant. After all, hasn’t Genndy essentially been doing Conan all this time with Primal? Well, as the focus of most of his recent projects proves, the man has had the Barbarian on his mind for a long time. Genndy says he came up with the concept for a CTB series as early as 2008.
And part of the reason he couldn’t make a Conan the Barbarian show right away was because his current projects kept veering similar to that kind of world. He couldn’t do Conan and Samurai Jack at the same time, nor Conan and Primal at the same time. But now that he’s free from those constraints, and the rights have lined up, he’s ready to tackle the original.
It may be a similar idea, but so far, I haven’t had nearly enough of Genndy’s action formula of tough guys facing impossible odds. Those long stretches with no dialogue and heavy atmosphere punctured by sudden acts of violence….it’s sweeter than chocolate. Nobody does it better.
Of course, the crunching bones and flying blood is just noise if there isn’t a driving force; something to care about and struggle for. In Primal, Spear had the dinosaur (and eventually, a new family) to protect. What does Conan care about? The logline says he’s found true love with a pirate queen, only for said pirate queen to be kidnapped by a sorcerer. This dark force not only wants his galpal for unknown reasons, but has plans to destroy the world. Thus, Conan must take up the sword once more.
After finding love in the pirate queen, Bêlit, a battle-hardened Conan defies gods, fate and even death to save her from a dark sorcery that threatens to destroy everything.
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Conan The Barbarian is now in production at Cartoon Network Studios for a premiere on Amazon Prime sometime in the future.
