There's a new Conan animated series in development, by Crom! Right now, it's only in the planning stages, so don't hold your breath. The good news is the director is a huge Robert E. Howard fan. Let's hope the production is green-lighted with a completion schedule. Hard to say what the art direction will look like, so I don't expect anything like FIRE AND ICE. Still, it's always good to look forward to something like this. Details below.
Clone Wars creator making new Conan the Barbarian animated series
By Willa Rowe | Jun 24, 2026 | Polygon.com
Since Conan the Barbarian's 1932 debut in the pages of Weird Tales, the character has had a long life across nearly every medium there is. Perhaps most notably, the legendary warrior was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the eponymous 1982 film, and it's 1984 sequel, Conan the Destroyer. Now a new take on Conan is in the works, this time from one of the greatest animation directors around.
At this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Prime Video announced Genndy Tartakovsky is working on a Conan the Barbarian animated series with Cartoon Network Studios. Tartakovsky is a legend in the animation world, having created a number of Cartoon Network's most iconic shows, including Dexter's Laboratory, Primal, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. During the announcement, Tartakovsky said he has been pitching an animated version of Conan since 2008.
As for why the project took so long to materialize, he credits the more recent popularity of his adult fantasy horror series Primal as well as the finale season of Samurai Jack in 2017. He also noted how big a fan he is of the original books by Robert E. Howard. This makes sense when you look through the animator's credits, as so many of his shows revolve around a gruff and often silent swordsman fighting evil. Primal especially feels like Tartakovsky's take on Conan without the actual IP. That series follows the story of the caveman Spear and the T-Rex Fang across a dark prehistoric world. Building on the minimalist storytelling of Samurai Jack, Primal had no dialogue in its first season. Conan himself is a man of few words, and it would not be surprising to see Tartakovsky employ similar storytelling approaches as are seen in his previous work.
While there were no signs of a trailer, as the project has only just entered development, Prime Video did release a poster and a brief synopsis of the series. The poster itself is about what you might expect: a close-up of Conan gritting his teeth like he's ready to fight people. The logline is as follows:
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.
Bêlit is an established character from Conan lore that originally appeared in the Howard short story "Queen of the Black Coast." That is her only appearance in the Howard novels as, spoiler, she does not make it out alive. The character has been expanded upon in subsequent material, however, such as in the Poul Anderson novel Conan the Rebel and the Marvel Comics series.
Tartakovsky's animated show has no release window at this time.
