Arnold Schwarzenegger Teaming With Christopher McQuarrie for King Conan at 20th Century Studios

By Crom, it looks like the long-talked-about, but never-made, Conan 3 is being revived once again at 20th Century Studios, and 78-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger is attached to take the Atlantean sword in hand once again, per The Hollywood Reporter. THR reports that Schwarzenegger is attached to the long-awaited Conan 3, with longtime Mission: Impossible filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie attached to write and direct the proposed King Conan movie for 20th Century Studios.

Schwarzenegger portrayed Robert E. Howard’s iconic literary character on the big screen twice, first in 1982 with Conan the Barbarian, written and directed by John Milius, and once more in 1984 with Conan the Destroyer. Conan gave Schwarzenegger his breakout role, launching him into the stratosphere to become one of the biggest movie stars in history.

Schwarzenegger first announced plans for the sequel and McQuarrie’s involvement over the weekend at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio. Additionally, he said he was talking to Dan Trachtenberg about returning to the Predator franchise. Last year’s animated feature, Predator: Killer of Killers, featured a cameo for Schwarzenegger’s character, Dutch Schaefer from the original 1987 movie, revealing what happens to him after his encounter with the Jungle Hunter.

Schwarzenegger informed the crowd regarding King Conan, “It’s a great story where Conan was 40 years king and he gets complacent, and now he gets forced out of the kingdom, slowly. Then there’s conflict, of course, and then he somehow comes back, and then there’s all kinds of madness and violence and magic and creatures.” He continued, “Now, of course, you have all the special effects, and the studio system has plenty of money to make those movies really big. So I’m looking forward to all of those projects.”

Will Arnold Schwarzenegger’s King Conan Movie Finally Take Up His Sword Again

This isn’t the first time Schwarzenegger sought to get a potential King Conan movie off the ground. Schwarzenegger sought to return to the role in the early 2010s, and Universal developed the project with writer Chris Morgan, placing Schwarzenegger’s Conan in an Unforgiven-style scenario, making the character more age-appropriate for the actor. However, it never materialized.

Outside of Schwarzenegger’s version, Millennium Films, Nu Image, Paradox Productions, and Conan Properties International LLC produced the 2011 live-action Conan the Barbarian reboot, released by Lionsgate, and starring Jason Momoa. However, the film was a critical and commercial flop.

Later on, Ryan Condal (Colony, House of the Dragon) developed a Conan the Barbarian television series for Prime Video starting in 2018. Unfortunately, the project was “unceremoniously jettisoned” over at Amazon, per Condal speaking to IGN, and was later followed by The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power television series. Condal later went to oversee the new Game of Thrones prequel spin-off, House of the Dragon, at HBO.

THR also notes that 20th Century Studios spent the better part of the last year trying to lock down the rights to the character to move forward with a new feature.

Schwarzenegger has still been active in the acting realm. His Netflix action-comedy, FUBAR, recently debuted its second season on the streamer last year. The show was cancelled following Season 2.

Considering the proposed King Conan movie has had many stops and starts over the last 25 years, it remains to be seen if the new sequel will materialize. However, the 78-year-old Schwarzenegger appears game, and McQuarrie has worked well in reigniting aging legacy franchises before. This might finally be the time for Conan’s return to the big screen and the days of high adventure.