Arnold Schwarzenegger and Christopher McQuarrie are ready to take a swing at relaunching the Conan the Barbarian franchise.
McQuarrie, who has helmed the four most recent Mission: Impossible films, is attached to write and direct King Conan for 20th Century Studios, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Schwarzenegger would reprise his role as sword-wielding Conan the Barbarian, which became an early signature part for the star after he starred in the 1982 fantasy film of the same name and its 1984 sequel that brought the character created by author Robert E. Howard to the big-screen.
Schwarzenegger announced McQuarrie’s involvement in the project over the weekend at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio. Additionally, the star said that he has been talking to Dan Trachtenberg about returning to the Predator franchise that the filmmaker revived with 2022’s Prey and last year’s follow-up Predator: Badlands. Schwarzenegger also noted that he has received a script for Commando 2 that would see the actor return to the role of Colonel John Matrix that he originated in the original 1985 action film.
In teasing King Conan, Schwarzenegger told the crowd, “It’s a great story where Conan was 40 years king [as] 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. 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.”
Hollywood has long sought to bring Schwarzenegger back to his Conan role, taking steps to make it age appropriate. Universal had the rights to the character in the early 2010s with Fast & Furious scribe Chris Morgan placing Schwarzenegger’s Conan in an Unforgiven-style story. Despite years of development, it was never made.
20th Century has spent a better part of the last year trying to tie up the rights to the character in order to move forward with a new feature.
