During a revealing chat on the Joe Rogan Experience, Robert Rodriguez (director of Sin City and Alita: Battle Angel) shared some ambitous plans to resurrect Conan the Barbarian for a new generation.
The director revealed an intriguing vision of an epic three-part saga that sadly never materialized.
Rodriguez disclosed that he had mapped out a trilogy based on Robert E. Howard's legendary warrior and even successfully sparked the interest of cinematic titan James Cameron (Avatar, Terminator).
"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 things in perspective, James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez joined forces to film Alita: Battle Angel in 2016. Around that time, it's believed Rodriguez shared his Conan the Barbarian trilogy concept with Cameron. However, in 2020, Netflix acquired the rights to Conan, prompting Rodriguez to pitch his ideas to the streaming giant—though the project ultimately stalled.
Following these developments, the Conan intellectual property appears to have reverted to Conan Properties International (CPI), a subsidiary of Heroic Signatures. CPI oversees the vast rights portfolio tied to Robert E. Howard’s 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?