Action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger has confirmed the long-awaited Conan sequel King Conan is indeed “a reality,” and will commence shooting next year. Schwarzenegger revealed the news while speaking with TheArnoldFans.com to mark the 44th anniversary of 1982’s Conan the Barbarian (via The Hollywood Reporter).
“Next year we are going to do King Conan,” said Schwarzenegger. “So that is a reality now and I am excited about it. For the last 10 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 subsequently explained he is hopeful John Milius, the director of Conan the Barbarian, can participate in the film as producer. He also noted he believes he is now the perfect age to play Conan in the project.
“The movie wouldn’t have worked after I did the first Conan because the whole idea of King Conan is that for 40 years he has been king, he is older now,” he said. “He is no longer in the shape he was from his heyday and now people are trying to take him out. 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.”
The 78-year-old action movie legend revealed in March this year that the gears were in motion on the long-gestating King Conan project, along with the fact that he’d been in talks with Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg about reprising his role as Dutch from 1987’s Predator, and additionally there’d been movement around a potential Commando 2.
Christopher McQuarrie, director of the last four Mission: Impossible films, is reportedly attached to write and direct King Conan.
The closing moments of the original Conan the Barbarian confirmed that, after the events of the film, Conan and his companions left to seek adventure elsewhere, fighting in many wars and feuds before “he became a king by his own hand.” His future as a king of his own kingdom was again mentioned in the ending for 1984’s Conan the Destroyer, though it was the original film that ended with a promise that “this story shall also be told.”
Now it looks like it finally will.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.
