Scene of the Week: Conan the Gladiator
The Conan the Barbarian character has been around for a long time. It was way back in 1932 when Conan first appeared in a story written by Robert E. Howard that was published in Weird Tales magazine. The Conan character would go on to appear in various forms of print media in the decades that followed, but it wasn’t until the 80’s that Conan got the live action treatment and Arnold Schwarzenegger got his first big movie role.
Conan the Barbarian opened in the United States on May 14, 1982. The film featured Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role of Conan the Barbarian and boasted an impressive cast of supporting players that included James Earl Jones (The Empire Strikes Back), Max von Sydow (Flash Gordon) and playing Conan’s father, the one and only William Smith.
Arnold Schwarzenegger would reprise the Conan role in Conan the Destroyer in 1984 and in Red Sonja in 1985 and depending on who you believe there are rumblings Arnold will be back as Conan in The Legend of Conan more than 35 years after he first portrayed the character.
In this week’s Scene of the Week we will go back to the beginning of the Conan movie franchise and see Conan being transformed into Conan the Gladiator, much to the delight of the blood thirsty spectators…
