Netflix is currently developing a series adaptation of the best-selling Vault comic, Barbaric, Deadline reported.
Sam Claflin is set to star as Owen the Barbarian and will also serve as executive producer. Patrick Stewart will star as The Axe. The project is from A+E Studios and Sheldon Turner and Jennifer Klein’s studio-based 100% Productions.
Turner will write the show and Michael Bay is in talks to direct. Barbaric is described as a cross between Deadpool and Game of Thrones, mixing gonzo violence and humor. The comic is a medieval fantasy that follows the story of Owen the Barbarian, cursed to perform good deeds, and his talking enchanted and sarcastic axe.
Barbaric: Sam Claflin as Owen the Barbarian and Patrick Stewart as his talking axe
Owen was once a ruthless barbarian. After he is cursed, he can now only do the right thing. As he struggles with his new moral compass, he is aided by his sentient weapon: a talking axe with a wicked sense of humor and a craving for blood.
Turner and Klein will also executive produce through their 100% Productions banner. Vault Comics’ F.J. DeSanto and Damian Wassel will serve as EPs together with Cusp Films’ Claflin, Luke Carroll and Michael Stevenson. A+E Studios’ Barry Jossen and Tana Jamieson are also set to executive produce.
Netflix and A+E Studios representatives have declined to comment.
Barbaric was published in 2021 and garnered strong reviews for its co-creator and writer Michael Moreci and co-creator and artist Nathan Gooden. If the project moves forward, it will be Bay’s first time directing for TV.
Claflin is best known for his lead roles in Prime Video’s Daisy Jones & The Six, where he earned a Golden Globe nomination for best performance by a male actor in a limited series, anthology series or motion picture made for television.
He also appeared in the Hunger Games franchise as Finnick Odair, Oswald Mosley in Peaky Blinders and Mycroft Holmes in Netflix’s Enola Holmes. The actor will next be seen as the lead in the upcoming The Count of Monte Cristo series adaptation with Jeremy Irons.
Stewart recently finished reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard in Paramount+’s Star Trek: Picard, set 20 years after the events of 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. He’s rumored to appear in a cameo, reprising his role as the X-Men leader Professor Charles Xavier, in the upcoming Marvel Studios movie Deadpool & Wolverine.
When asked about the rumors, Stewart said, “I cannot put it to rest because it’s not a fact either for or against. It’s a possibility.”
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