Prince Thun is a fictional character who appeared in various forms of the Flash Gordon comic strip and film productions. He is a Lion Man of Mongo and one of Flash's most trusted friends. His Father is King Jugrid, ruler of the Lion Men, and one of the three mightiest rulers of Mongo.

In comics

Thun first appeared in the

Alex Raymond Alexander Gillespie Raymond Jr. (October 2, 1909 – September 6, 1956) was an American cartoonist who was best known for creating the ''Flash Gordon'' comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into many ...

comic strip of the 1930s and quickly becomes an ally of Flash, after meeting him during a Lion Men attack on Mingo City. Alex Raymond and Don Moore, "On the Planet Mongo" (1/7/34 to 4/8/34). Thun and the other Lion Men are depicted as human-like aliens, but with orange skin and leonine tails. The Lion Men are shown as living in tents and using "Space Gyro" aircraft, which are capable of defeating Ming's rocket ships in aerial combat. The Lion Men also have access to artillery, and are shown to own a mortar gun capable of destroying a small city. Thun helped Flash Gordon twice in stopping Ming marrying Dale. Thun and the Lion Men appeared on a semi-regular basis in the later Flash Gordon comic strips. In the Dan Barry ''Flash Gordon'' stories, Thun and the Lion Men live in a region called Leonia, in caves resembling mine shafts. Thun has regularly appeared in the various Flash Gordon comic books. The character has appeared in the 1988

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

adaptation ''Flash Gordon'' by

Dan Jurgens Dan Jurgens (; born June 27, 1959) is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline " The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw and Booster Gold. Jurg ...

. Thun subsequently turned up in the Ardden Entertainment ''Flash Gordon'' comics. Thun was depicted in the

Dynamite Entertainment Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publisher founded by Nick Barrucci in 2004 at Mount Laurel, New Jersey. It is best known as the owners of '' The Boys'' franchise across several IP medias. Dynamite primarily publishes adaptations ...

''Flash Gordon'' mini-series, where he closely resembled his depiction from the Filmation cartoon. Thun's homeland was named "Ardentia" here, after the 1980 film.

In other media

In 1936, Thun was first played by

James Pierce James Hubert Pierce (August 8, 1900 – December 11, 1983) was an American actor and the fourth actor to portray Tarzan on film. He appeared in films from 1924 to 1951. Background Pierce was born in Freedom, Indiana. He was an All-American ...

in the

film serial A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

entitled '' Flash Gordon''. Thun appeared in the serial much as he did in the comic strip, a humanoid with a wild shock of long hair and a long beard, creating the overall effect of a lion's mane. Flash, Dale and Zarkov encounter a "lion-man" in "The Forbidden Experiment", the 25th episode of the 1954 syndicated television series, although he is not identified on-screen as Thun. His body and face are covered with fur and he has fangs and mane-like hair. He has the power to command animals and is seeking to become fully human in appearance. The actor is not credited. Thun next appeared in the 1979

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and ...

series. In the feature-length pilot for the series, Thun was voiced by

Ted Cassidy Theodore Crawford Cassidy (July 31, 1932 – January 16, 1979) was an American actor noted for his tall stature at and deep voice. He tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction series such as ''Star Trek'' and ''I Dream of ...

. However, Cassidy died before production of the series, so the role was recast with

Allan Melvin Allan John Melvin (February 18, 1923 – January 17, 2008) was an American actor and impressionist, who was cast in hundreds of television episodes from the 1950s to the early 1990s, often appearing in recurring roles on various series. Some of th ...

(who also played Vultan) providing the voice. In this series, Thun appeared as a literal lion man, with a lion's head and claws on a human body. He was referred to as a king, rather than a prince. Thun is the first of Flash's allies on Mongo, and the most loyal and steadfast. It was heavily implied that there was an entire race of Lion Men on Mongo, but Thun was the only one who ever appeared onscreen. In 1980, a character called Prince Thun was played by George Harris in the

Dino De Laurentiis Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian-American film producer. Along with Carlo Ponti, he was one of the producers who brought Italian cinema to the international scene at the end of World War II. He ...

film version A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

. He was referred to as the Prince of Ardentia, and appeared human and clean-shaven. When he offered his loyalty "without measure",

Ming the Merciless Ming the Merciless is a fictional character who first appeared in the ''Flash Gordon'' comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, television series and film adaptation. Ming is depicted as ...

commanded him to fall on his sword. Instead, he attacked Ming and was destroyed, paralyzed by Ming's probe and then stabbed with his sword by Ming revealing him to have blue blood. In the 1996 '' Flash Gordon'' cartoon, Prince Thun was replaced by Princess Thundar. Like the earlier animated Thun, she was a literal lion-person, somewhat resembling the '' Thundercats''. Like the other main characters, she was a teenager and worked with Flash, Dale Arden and Prince Talon of the Hawk-People to overthrow Ming. A character named Thun does not appear in the 2007 '' Flash Gordon'' live action series, in which the Lion Men are renamed Turin. In this version they are led by Bolgar, played by

Shawn Reis Shawn may refer to: *Shawn (given name) *Shawn (surname) See also * Sean Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' () ...

. Bolgar becomes an ally of Flash in the episode "Blame", when Flash saves his son Rivu (Sebastian Gacki) from poisoning and convinces him the Deviates are not responsible. The Turin resemble the original Lion Men, humans with claws and mane-like hair. They also roar like lions when angry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thun, Prince Comics characters introduced in 1934 Fictional anthropomorphic characters Fictional cats Fictional princes Flash Gordon characters Fictional kings