Jason Momoa gives some finesse for his role "Conan the Barbarian"

Arnold Schwarzenegger made his Hollywood breakthrough playing the charismatic Cimmerian warrior in the 1982 original Conan the Barbarian. And this Friday, may be the same star making vehicle for 32 years, Jason Momoa, the type of buff new pick the sword, cutting off the heads of their enemies and in good position to do so. The new 3D movie, his father, played by Ron Perlman is killed by a warlord, and Conan embarks on an epic quest to avenge his death with the help of a nun named Tamara and Rachel Nichols, who is also skilled with the sword.

Conan's mantra: "I live, I love, I slay  and I am content." And while still as violent as ever, Momoa's version is sleeker than his cinematic predecessor's. "There's a finesse that he brings to the character that is very modern and very beauty," Nichols says. "It's less 'Me Tarzan, you Jane,' and he's got more personality."

Since the creation of Conan in the 1930 stories of Robert E. Howard the Barbarian has gone through several incarnations in books, cartoons, video games, comics, films and art.  

"Our collective perception of who Conan is really changes through the decades and is not just defined by one thing alone," Nispel says. "He needs to be updated." Momoa was of the generation that would sneak into the R-rated Schwarzenegger movies Conan the Barbarian and the 1984 sequel, Conan the Destroyer, to see all the testosterone-filled fighting. "I grew up with my single mother, and she was watching Gone With the Wind and Rear Window. We weren't watching too many orgies and people getting their heads cut off," says Momoa, who was born in Hawaii and raised in Iowa. "I've never played a character who's already been played."

Momoa Roles have been primarily in television, from soap operas Beach Baywatch Hawaii and the northern coast of the protagonist as the fearsome warlord Khal Drogo Game of Thrones on HBO.

Still had the beard Momoa Khal Drogo, when he auditioned for Conan. The producers had seen several hundred candidates from around the world and went Momoa not even as a strong possibility after the first hearing.  

When Momoa walked in, "he looked like a Klingon commander" from Star Trek, Nispel says. Yet Momoa refused to shave off the beard for a screen test. "He said, 'I read the script, there's a pirate in it. Cast me as a pirate, and I'll make your Conan look like the wuss that he is.'"

Though some may wonder if Momoa's performance will be iconic enough to dethrone Schwarzenegger as the pre-eminent movie Conan, Nispel says the bigger question may be whether there's a place in today's pop culture for this type of character.

"Is this still a generation that embraces or reveres machoism?'' Nispel wonders. "Are they still into an experience where you get dirt under your nails, and that's sweaty and grimy and hard-core? I believe they will be. "That's why we're here to relaunch the franchise. Get Conan back out there. There's a whole generation of kids who don't know who he is."