Jason Momoa may be comfortably established as a major star who boasts plenty of experience in the effects-driven, big budget arena of escapist fantasy, but his first-ever leading role in a major feature film couldn’t have gone much worse when the Conan the Barbarian remake landed with a deafening thud in the summer of 2011.
As we’ve seen before and since with the likes of Total Recall, Terminator Salvation, Eraser: Reborn, and the True Lies TV series, attempting to rejuvenate an Arnold Schwarzenegger classic without the presence of the Austrian Oak himself has proven to be a completely fruitless and ultimately pointless exercise, with Marcus Nispel’s swords-and-sorcery epic joining the rest of the aforementioned titles on the cultural scrapheap.
On top of being widely panned by critics and unanimously rejected by audiences, Conan the Barbarian V2.0 tanked spectacularly in theaters after failing to even come anywhere near to recouping its hefty $90 million budget. There may have been a couple of well-staged set pieces, but the logistics behind mounting a hugely expensive remake of a beloved favorite that nobody was asking for in the first place should have been questioned before the studio wasted so much money.
Nonetheless, sweeping fantasy dripping in blood that’s topped off with a sky-high body count can always be leaned on to do a job on streaming, particularly at the weekend when the less discerning subscriber is often keen to detach from reality and immerse themselves in some far-fetched silliness. As a result, Momoa’s Conan has emerged as one of the most popular films on Netflix according to FlixPatrol, even though anyone in their right mind would have much rather Schwarzenegger’s legacy sequel King Conan happened instead.