MovieChat Forums > Red Sonja (1985) Discussion > Realation to conan

Realation to conan

posted 11 years ago by samwrrussell
3 replies | jump to latest

Is this movie part of the conan franchise? Were there legal problems preventing them to give it the conan name?

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] GreatWhiteApeofBarsoom 10 years ago

Actually Red Sonya was a character introduced by Robert Howard in a pre-Conan short story set during the Turkish invasion of Europe, The Shadow of the Vulture. In the 1970s, Roy Thomas took elements from this heroine and another Howardian creation, Dark Agnes, to create Red Sonja.

Thomas transplanted his character from the late Middle Ages to the Marvel Comics version of Howard's time period for Conan--the Hyborian Age. Thus the character and setting of the movie.

Requiescat in pace, Krystle Papile. I'll always miss you.

[–] mystikan 10 years ago

Arnold Schwarzenegger was contracted by 20th Century-Fox to make three fantasy movies based in Robert E. Howard's Hyborian world. The three movies were originally intended to be Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, and Conan the King. The third movie was intended to close the trilogy, which is why the two Conan movies ended with the Mako voiceover "In time, he became king by his own hand, and wore his crown upon a troubled brow," and displayed the text "...but that is another story."

However, due to copyright issues Fox were unable to secure the rights to the Conan character (possibly the lawyers for Howard's estate got greedy after seeing the success of the first two Conan movies) so in order to fulfil Arnie's 3-movie contract they were forced to cast him in an alternate role using lesser-known characters from the same Hyborian world. Thus, Conan the King was dropped and Red Sonja was made as the third movie instead.