MOVIE NEWS – Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing to return to one of his most iconic roles after more than four decades: the long-discussed King Conan is finally moving forward as a real project. According to Schwarzenegger, filming is expected to begin in 2027, with Christopher McQuarrie directing, and the story will lean directly into Conan’s age rather than pretending time has not passed.
Forty-four years have passed since Arnold Schwarzenegger first picked up a sword as the title character in Conan the Barbarian, and the Hollywood action icon now appears ready to return to Robert E. Howard’s legendary warrior. The 1982 film was followed by Conan the Destroyer in 1984, but a proper third Schwarzenegger-led installment spent decades trapped in development limbo. Now the project has new momentum: Schwarzenegger has confirmed that he is ready to play Conan again, while Christopher McQuarrie is reportedly attached to direct.
What makes King Conan interesting is that it will not try to hide Schwarzenegger’s age. Instead, that is the point of the story. Speaking to TheArnoldFans, the actor explained that the movie would not have worked immediately after the first Conan, because the whole idea is that Conan has now spent forty years as king. He is older, no longer in the condition he was in during his prime, and people are trying to remove him from power. “He’s the king and he gets a little bit complacent. He’s tired of the job and he wants to move on. Look at the movie by Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven. It will be a lot like that but it will be with extraordinary battles”, Schwarzenegger said.
The project now seems more concrete because Fredrik Malmberg of Conan Properties International, and producer of King Conan, has confirmed that a deal between CPI, Schwarzenegger, and Twentieth has been completed to make the long-awaited sequel happen. Schwarzenegger went even further by giving the production window himself: “Next year we are going to do King Conan. So that is a reality now and I am excited about it. For the last ten years I have been saying, ‘we should do King Conan, and we should get a great script written, get someone who really understands Robert E. Howard, that understands the artwork of Frank Frazetta and to continue on’”.
Schwarzenegger also wants John Milius, the director of the original Conan the Barbarian, involved in some capacity, potentially as a producer. That makes sense, because Milius’ 1982 film did not only launch one of Schwarzenegger’s defining screen personas, but still stands as the best-known and, for many fans, strongest cinematic version of the character. King Conan therefore does not sound like just another late legacy sequel. The image of an aging warrior king gives the film a genuine dramatic engine, especially if McQuarrie brings the action precision of his Mission: Impossible work into a darker sword-and-sorcery world.
King Conan is not the only classic Schwarzenegger role being discussed again. The actor has also spoken about a possible return to Predator and a developing Commando 2, suggesting that his late career could lean heavily into the characters that defined his 1980s superstardom. The difference with King Conan is that age is not a problem to work around; it is the core of the movie. This is the story of a tired ruler forced to take up the sword one more time because the world will not let him grow old in peace.
Source: MovieWeb, TheArnoldFans, The Guardian
