Arnold Schwarzenegger will return to the role that launched him as a movie star in a belated third installment of the Conan the Barbarian franchise. The original film, released in 1982 and adapted from Robert E Howard’s pulp novels, saw the then-bodybuilder play the sword-wielding knight seeking revenge against James Earl Jones’ cult leader Thulsa Doom.
Schwarzenegger, 78, whose acting work has slowed since returning to the profession following his stint as governor of California, announced at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend that director Christopher McQuarrie, best known for his work on the Mission: Impossible franchise, would be taking the reins of King Conan.
“It’s a great story,” he said, where after sitting on the throne for 40 years, “Conan becomes complacent and now he’s forced to leave the kingdom, slowly. Then there’s conflict, of course, and then somehow he comes back, and then there’s all kinds of madness and violence and magic and creatures.”
“Now, of course, you have all the special effects and the studio system has a lot of money to make those really big movies.”
The first film grossed $68 million and spawned a sequel two years later, Conan the Destroyer. A third film was planned in the late ’80s, but it felt apart. A 2011 reboot starring Jason Momoa fared poorly with critics and the box office.
Schwarzenegger also revealed that he plans to return to the series Predator, another of the star’s early signature roles, as well as 1985’s Commando, in which he played a loyal but formidable retired Green Beret soldier.
In 2019, he also returned to the Terminator franchise for Terminator: Dark Fate, which was poorly received. His upcoming projects include the martial arts drama Kung Fury 2, opposite Michael Fassbender, and The Man With the Bag, in which he plays a grieving Santa Claus, whose bag is stolen by a petty criminal.
