Thundarr the Barbarian (21 episodes; 1980-81)

Created by Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck; The Defenders).

The look of the main characters was designed by Alex Toth. After he was unavailable to continue working on the series, Jack “King” Kirby was brought in, at the recommendation of Gerber and Mark Evanier (who would later write a biography of Kirby). Kirby designed the look of most of the villains and supporting characters.

What is it?

What is it?? Lords of Light, it’s awesome, is what it is!

It’s an animated series that aired on ABC on Saturday mornings between 1980 and 1981. It aired in reruns on NBC in 1983.

Created in part by the legendary Jack Kirby and Alex Toth, it brought a Conan-style barbarian warrior to a distant, post-apocalyptic future, teamed him with a sorceress and a monstrous ally, and pitted the trio against all sorts of menaces that combined super-science and sorcery.

Noteworthy

The show is worth it just for the character designs by Toth and Kirby. Warriors, wizards, mutants and monsters all clash amid the crumbling remains of our own civilization.

The network insisted Gerber include a monstrous Wookie-like ally for Thundarr. Gerber reluctantly agreed, but needed a name for the character. When he and writer Martin Pasko went to dinner in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, Pasko looked up at the front gates of the UCLA campus and suggested the name “Ookla.”

As of 2026, there’s a new Thundarr comic book being published by Dynamite Entertainment, featuring various artists and written by Jason Aaron (Avengers; Conan).

Cartoon Network aired the show in the 1990s. The complete series was released on DVD and Blu-ray home video as recently as 2021.

Quick and Dirty Summary

The opening credits of each episode present us with an origin story for Thundarr’s world, but not so much for the character himself.

The world is our own, two thousand years in the future, after a “runaway planet” (likely a comet) tears our moon in half and brings down Earth’s civilization. We are left with a world of super-science, sorcery, and savagery.

Thundarr breaks free of the slave pens and somehow acquires the “fabulous Sunsword,” enabling him to go toe-to-toe with the mightiest monsters and evil beings. Teamed up with his allies, Ookla the Mok (a furry, savage beast, in the Chewbacca mold) and Princess Ariel (a sorceress who never reveals much of anything about her past), they travel across the wrecked remains of Earth, battling evil at every turn!

Fantasy/SF/Sword and Sorcery Elements

Because the show is set in the far future, after a massive, worldwide catastrophe, it is able to blend elements of science fiction (flying vehicles, lasers, and so on) with more traditional elements of fantasy and magic. The result is a particularly appealing type of Sword & Sorcery, in which the familiar tropes of the genre stand side-by-side with the ruins of contemporary settings and futuristic characters and weapons, in a sort of goulash of everything that’s cool.

There’s a proud tradition in Sword & Sorcery of that one really extra-cool weapon in a story, from the famous sword Excalibur (as in Excalibur and other films) to the Glaive (Krull) to the awesome, three-bladed rocket-sword we discussed previously (The Sword and the Sorcerer). Thundarr has just such a weapon: “the fabulous Sunsword.” We never learn exactly where he acquired it, but it’s a hilt that generates an energy blade, and is remarkably similar to the lightsaber of Star Wars. It also magnetically attaches to his wristband for easy transport when he’s not using it to hack giant rat-men to pieces.

Thundarr’s two companions are familiar Sword & Sorcery archetypes. Princess Ariel is able to cast all sorts of offensive and defensive spells, and Ookla is a mighty warrior who needs no weapons to wreak havoc on his enemies (or on helicopters, when he gets frustrated trying to fly one). All three heroes ride horses, though Ookla’s is alien in appearance and is called an “equort.”

Thundarr and company confront a wide variety of foes familiar to all sword and sorcery fans. There are mutated humanoid rats and lizards, giant monsters, werewolves, and a number of colorful wizards and sorcerers. There’s even an alien monster in the mold of The Thing! (Think Kurt Russell, not Ben Grimm.)

The intermingling of these fantasy elements with the technology of post-apocalyptic science fiction makes for an irresistible combination.

High Point

For me, the high point of the series is the premiere episode, “Secret of the Black Pearl,” in which Thundarr’s team clashes with the villain called Gemini.

One thing that perhaps held this show back a bit was its lack of an iconic recurring villain. Gemini had the potential to be that, and he did make a second appearance later in the series.

He is such a perfect Jack Kirby villain, and a perfect Thundarr foe. He wears a sort of combination space-suit and Medieval armor that would let him fit in at a New Gods or Eternals family reunion. Beneath his space helmet, his face is exposed. Normally, it’s a benign face; perhaps even jolly.

But when he’s angered, his entire head swivels around 180 degrees and a different visage is revealed: One with burning red eyes that fire energy beams! Gemini embodies the “super-science meets sorcery” idea arguably better than anyone else on the show. And nobody conveys such scorn for his opponent as Gemini, when he addresses Thundarr as, “BARBAAAARIAN!!”

Low Point

All of the episodes are written primarily for a younger audience. So, while the series is of very good quality compared to most of the shows that aired on Saturday mornings during that era, they still lack a bit in terms of stories. The potential is tremendous, but the show mostly fails to live up to the very heights it was clearly capable of reaching.

Standout Performance

Robert Ridgely, a “that guy” actor who appeared in nearly everything over the years, provided the voice of Thundarr, unleashing famous catchphrases such as “Demon Dogs!” “Lords of Light!” and of course, “Ariel–Ookla–RIDE!!”

With his supremely heroic voice, Ridgley also played the title character in the fantastic 1979 animated New Adventures of Flash Gordon series.

Nellie Bellflower voiced Princess Ariel, as well as a number of other female characters.

Overall Evaluation as a Movie and as Fantasy/SF/Sword & Sorcery

It’s not a movie, but Thundarr the Barbarian is as Sword & Sorcery as you can get. The genre comes in a number of sub-forms, and I’d call this one the “post-apocalyptic fantasy world” variety, where you’re as likely to encounter a giant, sorcery-animated Statue of Liberty as a werewolf or a rat-man.

For a Saturday morning cartoon, the writing is surprisingly intelligent and clever. It’s unfortunate they never gave us more backstory to the characters, but that was a common thing among TV shows and cartoons of that era: Minimal information to get us up to speed, and then off we go.

Unfortunately, we never did encounter those danged Demon Dogs!

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Van Allen Plexico once edited an anthology of tales set in a Thundarr-style post-apocalyptic future of super-science and sorcery, called Blackthorn: Thunder on Mars. He is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a Grand Master of Pulp Literature (2025 class) and a multiple-award-winning author of more than two dozen novels and anthologies, ranging from space opera to Kaiju to crime fiction to superheroes to military SF. Find his works on Amazon and at www dot Plexico dot net.