Throughout the 1910s to 1940s, Burroughs wrote two dozen sequels, creating a dense expanded universe. Tarzan fought lost cities (Opar), dinosaurs, Nazis, and even traveled to a hollow earth (Pellucidar). These books established several tropes:
While problematic by modern standards (Burroughs’ work contains colonial and racial biases of his era), the literary Tarzan laid the bedrock for the adventure genre. He influenced everyone from Superman (who is also an orphaned alien raised by surrogate parents in a rural "wilderness") to Indiana Jones. TARZAN XXX.3gp
More critically, and later Hugh Hudson’s Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) sought to deconstruct the myth. Greystoke was a serious, almost tragic biopic. It starred Christophe Lambert (as a gritty, barely verbal Tarzan) and Sir Ralph Richardson. This version emphasized the horror of being torn between two worlds, concluding with Tarzan rejecting British aristocracy to return to the jungle. It won an Academy Award for makeup but was a sobering, non-commercial counterpoint to the Disneyfied version to come. Throughout the 1910s to 1940s, Burroughs wrote two