So when most people hear the name Tarzan, they probably picture a guy in a loincloth swinging through trees, fighting poachers, wrestling crocodiles, and shouting his lungs out from the jungle canopy.
And honestly, that’s understandable because that’s basically the version Hollywood has spent the last hundred years selling us.
But here’s the weird thing.
That version of Tarzan is only a tiny slice of what the original books by Edgar Rice Burroughs actually were.
Because once you move beyond Tarzan of the Apes, the series starts becoming increasingly bizarre, ambitious, supernatural, and at times completely bonkers pulp fantasy.
We’re talking about:
• Lost civilizations
• Ancient cities
• Magic users
• Hidden races
• Dinosaurs
• Immortal beings
• Hollow Earth-style worlds
• Even interdimensional-style adventures
Yet almost none of this has ever really been adapted properly for television or film.
Instead, Hollywood keeps going back to the same basic formula:
“Tarzan fights poachers and protects the jungle.”
Now, there’s nothing wrong with environmental themes. In fact, Tarzan as a protector of nature makes perfect sense.
But the problem is Hollywood keeps adapting Tarzan as though he’s some grounded jungle eco-warrior, when the books themselves often read more like Conan the Barbarian, Indiana Jones, and Journey to the Centre of the Earth all smashed together in a fever dream.
So the question is:
Why is Hollywood so afraid of the REAL Tarzan?
The Greystoke Trap
I think one of the biggest reasons is that Tarzan adaptations became trapped by the success of the Greystoke narrative.
The origin story is iconic.
Aristocratic English child stranded in Africa. Raised by apes. Returns to civilisation but never fully belongs there.
That’s powerful stuff.
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes leaned heavily into the tragedy and realism of the character.
Ever since then, most filmmakers have treated Tarzan as prestige adventure material rather than embracing the insane pulp fantasy energy of the later novels.
Hollywood likes Tarzan when he’s:
• Symbolic
• Serious
• Grounded
• Environmentally conscious
• Easy to explain in a trailer
What Hollywood seems uncomfortable with is Tarzan fighting prehistoric monsters in lost cities while ancient cults worship forgotten gods.
Which is a shame because that’s exactly the material that could make Tarzan feel fresh again.
The Weird Stuff Hollywood Ignores
Now, if you’ve only ever seen the films, you may not even realise just how weird the Tarzan books became.
For example, in Tarzan at the Earth’s Core, Tarzan travels to Pellucidar.
Pellucidar is basically a prehistoric world hidden inside the Earth itself.
Inside this world you’ll find:
• Dinosaurs still roaming the land
• Strange civilizations
• Humans living alongside prehistoric creatures
So yes…
There are actual stories where Tarzan fights dinosaurs.
Not metaphorically.
Not in dream sequences.
Actual dinosaurs.
Then you’ve got the stories involving the lost city of Opar.
Opar is an ancient hidden civilization populated by descendants of Atlantis, and the High Priestess La becomes one of the most recurring characters in the Tarzan mythos.
These stories introduce:
• Ancient treasure
• Bizarre rituals
• Supernatural atmosphere
• Forgotten technology
• Almost Lovecraftian levels of ancient-world mystery
At times, the Tarzan novels feel less like jungle adventures and more like fantasy archaeology.
Then there’s Tarzan and the Lion Man, where Burroughs starts getting almost meta with the storytelling.
There are also stories involving hidden races, psychic abilities, ancient cults, and creatures that feel straight out of pulp horror fiction.
The books constantly evolve beyond the original premise.
But adaptations almost never do.
Hollywood’s Real Fear
And honestly, I don’t think the problem is that Hollywood believes audiences would reject fantasy Tarzan.
Modern audiences accepted:
• Giant blue aliens in Avatar
• Talking trees and raccoons in Guardians of the Galaxy
• Multiverse madness in Marvel films
• Giant sandworms in Dune
Audiences are clearly fine with weird concepts.
I think Hollywood’s real fear is that they genuinely do not know what Tarzan is anymore.
Is Tarzan:
• Fantasy?
• Adventure?
• Pulp science fiction?
• Sword and sorcery?
• Historical fiction?
• Superhero mythology?
The answer is actually all of the above.
And that makes executives nervous because modern Hollywood loves easy branding.
You can market Batman.
You can market The Lord of the Rings.
You can market Jurassic Park.
But Tarzan exists in a strange crossroads between:
• Jungle adventure
• Fantasy
• Pulp science fiction
• Lost World storytelling
• Mythology
Hollywood struggles with things that don’t fit neatly into a box.
The Colonial Problem
There’s also another issue modern studios probably don’t want to touch.
The original Tarzan novels absolutely contain colonial attitudes and casual racism that reflect the era in which they were written.
That shouldn’t be ignored or excused.
I think modern filmmakers often become so nervous about those elements that they retreat into safer environmental stories because those are easier to modernise.
But ironically, I think embracing the stranger fantasy side of Tarzan could actually help solve that problem.
Once Tarzan enters lost worlds, ancient civilizations, and supernatural adventures, the focus shifts away from colonial narratives and toward fantasy exploration.
Tarzan stops being:
“British man masters Africa.”
And becomes:
“A wild jungle adventurer navigating insane pulp fantasy worlds.”
That’s a very different tone.
Tarzan: The Epic Adventures
The late Joe Lara stars in Tarzan: The Epic Adventures
Now, to be fair, one adaptation did at least try to embrace some of the stranger elements.
Tarzan: The Epic Adventures from the 1990s.
And honestly?
It deserves a little more respect than it usually gets.
The show included:
• Supernatural threats
• Mystical artefacts
• Lost civilizations
• Monsters
• Fantasy storytelling much closer to the books
But it had two huge problems.
First, the budget wasn’t really there.
Second, it arrived during the exact same era as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.
Those shows completely dominated fantasy television at the time.
So Tarzan’s attempt to evolve beyond the traditional formula got overshadowed before it ever really had a chance.
Conclusion
The frustrating thing is that the real Tarzan might actually work better today than ever before.
Modern audiences are far more accepting of genre mashups and mythology-heavy storytelling.
Imagine a Tarzan series that fully embraced:
• Prehistoric monsters
• Lost civilizations
• Ancient magic
• Weird science
• Forgotten worlds
• Pulp adventure insanity
Done properly, it could feel like Indiana Jones meets Conan the Barbarian meets The Lost World.
But Hollywood keeps reducing Tarzan back down to:
“Man swings through the jungle and stops poachers.”
And after nearly a century of adaptations, maybe the real question isn’t:
“Can audiences handle fantasy Tarzan?”
Maybe the real question is:
Why can’t Hollywood?
Maybe a modern Tarzan series would work if Tarzan protected the jungle and stopped poachers in the first season. Only to delve into the more sci-fi and fantasy elements in subsequent seasons as the show continued?
No dom. I don’t like that idea as that is what they have been doing for over 100 years with the character, which was the point I was trying to make in the video. If they did a new series of movie now. I’d want them to lean into the supernatural elements right away as that would refresh the character.
Have you ever read my ERB authorized 2012 novel JANE, The Woman Who Loved Tarzan? It’s the Tarzan story from Jane’s point of view. It was very well-received by Tarzan fans. It doesn’t so much lean into lost civilizations and forgotten worlds as it is a realistic psychological take on how a modern woman (the early 20th century) could fall in love with a man who believes he is an ape. And how he learns, through a loving woman, that he is as much a human being as he is a Mangani.
Robin,
Afraid I haven’t. Most of what I know about Tarzan is from the various movie and tv adaptations and the few Edgar Rice Burroughs books I read after having seen those TV shows and movies. I grew up in the 70s and 80s. So my earliest exposure was the Ron Ely series and airings of the old movies with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan. As far as reading goes. Have read a few of the original novels and a few comic book adaptations. Your book does sound interesting though cos when watching the movies when they featured Jane have always thought that Jane would have major PTSD watching her boyfriend wrestling Lions, Tigers and Alligator’s.