For the Conan fans out there who are welcome to accepting the Schwarzenegger-less reboot of the franchise, we have another bit of casting news for you.
The ball started rolling for the return of our favorite Barbarian with the major announcement a month ago that Stargate SG-1’s Jason Momoa was cast as the title character in Conan. At the time, we also found out that they had made an offer to Mickey Rourke to play Conan’s dad and yesterday it was confirmed that he is in fact currently in negotiations for the role.
But what about the bad guy in all of this? What good is Conan without enemies to destroy? According to our pal El Mayimbe at Latino Review who has been feeding the world all of the casting announcements so far for Conan, MMA fighter Bob Sapp will be playing the character of Ukafa, a Conan villain.
From the Conan character casting breakdown released in October, we known Ukafa is a massive and powerful warrior and leader.
He’s in his 30s-40, very dark-skinned African or African American, massively framed at six-foot-five, gold-toothed, hardened by a lifetime of war, a leader of Kushite Tribemen from the savannahs of Kush. Ukafa is Khalar Singh’s second in command, jealous that Singh’s son, Fariq, will one day be warlord. He obeys his leader but plots the overthrow of his son. He is a mighty warrior and unbeatable in battle—until he comes face to face with Conan.
Bob Sapp is a monstrous man in size and muscle and he certainly fits the physical description. He’s had a few small roles in big films including The Longest Yard and Elektra so it looks like we’ll get to see him have a bigger presence on screen with Conan.
Filming will start next month so expect plenty of new casting announcements soon!
Conan will be directed by Marcus Nispel and will likely open in summer 2011.
