Thulsa Doom - in Films

In Films

A character of the same name is the antagonist in the 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian. Played by James Earl Jones, the cinematic Thulsa Doom is considerably different from the literary one, who is described as having a skull-like face. Pre-production drawings showed this version of Thulsa Doom with the skull-like face, but as filmed, he is essentially the classic "Conan" villain Thoth-Amon, servant of the serpent-god Set. As such, he appears as an ordinary human in the film, though one said to have lived for a thousand years and with the power to transform into an enormous snake.

This Thulsa Doom/Thoth-Amon hybrid appears to have been re-imagined as a cult leader in the manner of the real life demagogues that had popped up in the decade previous to the film's release. In the movie he is shown to have an extraordinary command of his followers. For example, in one scene, after Thulsa Doom commands one of his female followers on a high ledge to come to him, she jumps off the ledge to her death. In this he resembled Hassan-i Sabbah, the Nizari leader, who according to Arab sources had one of his followers leap to his death to demonstrate his power to visiting dignitaries. Additionally Sabbah's hashassans would leave daggers on the pillows of dignitaries to intimidate them as did the cult in the Conan film.

Dynamite Entertainment announced that Djimon Hounsou signed to co-produce and star as Thulsa Doom in a film version based on the comic books, rather than Robert E. Howard's original incarnation, although the film has not been made yet.