There’s no getting around the fact that Ron Perlman has what it takes to play a barbarian. In fact, if you have any doubts just rent Howard McCain’s Outlander where he plays the big burly leader of a Viking clan. Add in the trailers for the upcoming Season of the Witch where he’s spearing wolves and monsters next to Nicolas Cage, and he seems like the perfect person to play the father of Robert E. Howard’s greatest creation, Conan the Barbarian. I prefer Perlman to Mickey Rourke, who was originally slated to take the role.
What happened there is that Tarsem Singh’s Dawn of War (the myth epic formerly known as War of the Gods) pulled in Rourke, and then Perlman signed on for the role of Corin, Conan’s dad. He’ll be playing papa to Jason Momoa, the Hawaiian model who’s stepping into the battle-hungry barbarian’s loincloth. Perlman is the latest addition to Marcus Nispel’s cast that also recently added Stephen Lang as the film’s villain, a sorcerer looking to rouse sleeping demonic forces, and Said Taghmaoui, the leader of a gang of thieves that joins forces with Conan.
Perlman, who currently plays the patriarch of a much different clan (bikers) on FX’s Sons of Anarchy, has made a career out of playing heroes and villians both monstrous and gentle. In fact, Perlman’s gift is the ability to move between the two, sometimes in the same role. Perlman made his biggest mark back in the 80’s, playing the half-human, half-feline Vincent, a subterranean vigilante with the soul of a poet, in television’s 3 season series Beauty and the Beast. He’s handled the tough guy with a warm center many times, including 1995’s City of Lost Children and Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy films.
I look forward to seeing what Perlman will do with this role and, in truth, how large the role really is. Previously, Conan’s dad was alive for just about five minutes before he was brutally killed by invading forces. I’m curious to see how it all fits together. Also, I’m wondering when/if we get to hear anymore about Perlman’s involvement in the follow-up to Don Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep, where he’ll be replacing Bruce Campbell as Elvis.
Following up a celtic warrior with The King would be something else.
What do you think? Is Perlman a better fit than Rourke?
