Thanks to the runaway success of “Aquaman,” Jason Momoa is now a household name for Hollywood leading men. Of course, his short turn as Khal Drogo in “Game Of Thrones” first elevated his station years ago, but Arthur Curry is Momoa’s namesake now. And that won’t change any time soon, with “Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom” on the way next March.
But there were earlier attempts to catapult Momoa into superstardom before “Game Of Thrones” and his entrance into the DCEU that didn’t go as well. Case in point: Marcus Nispel‘s 2011 “Conan The Barbarian” remake, which was an abysmal box office bomb. In an interview with British GQ, Momoa opened up about the experience of making the film, and divulged that post-production issues contributed to it being a disaster.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of things that really sucked, and movies where it’s out of your hands,” Momoa said. “”Conan [the Barbarian]” was one of them. It’s one of the best experiences I had and it [was] taken over and turned into a big pile of shit.” Momoa doesn’t cite exactly what issues made him sour to his “Conan” film, but there are a bevy of possibilities. The film has an execrable 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it was only a modest success at the box office, taking in $90 million off a $63.5 million budget.
Also keep in mind that Momoa’s “Conan” movie isn’t a direct remake of the 1982 or 1984 films that helped further launch Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career. Nispel’s film, like John Milius and Richard Fleischer‘s movies, take inspiration from Robert E. Howard‘s fantasy stories that star the character. Maybe moviegoers in 2011 wanted Momoa’s Conan to square off against Thulsa Doom again. Or, perhaps more likely, there simply isn’t a large audience for sword-and-sandal fantasy epics in the current movie climate.
Whatever the case, Momoa survived his “Conan The Barbarian” falter. Beyond the new “Aquaman” film next year, he also stars in the next two “The Fast And The Furious” movies. In addition, the third and final season of his Apple TV+ series “See” also premieres on August 26.