Arnold Schwarzenegger may be pushing 80 these days, but the iconic action movie star could well be entering one of the busiest periods of his Hollywood career. Schwarzenegger has revealed that 20th Century Studios is currently developing Conan 3, Commando 2, and a new Predator movie, with an eye for him to star in all three.
As reported by Variety, Schwarzenegger dropped this bombshell at a panel at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio. The actor revealed that he’s been in talks with Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg about reprising the role of Dutch from 1987’s Predator. Meanwhile, there appears to be new movement at 20th Century Studios with both Commando 2 and the long-in-development Conan 3/King Conan movie.
“They did an additional Predator and the director has been doing a great job of that. Now, he wants me to be in the next Predator. We’ve talked about it,” Schwarzenegger said at the convention. “As a matter of fact, Fox Studios has kind of rediscovered Arnold. They’ve come to me and said, ‘We want you to do Predator, we just got a script for you to do Commando 2.”
Schwarzenegger also revealed that the studio has “just hired a fantastic writer/director who did Tom Cruise’s last four movies to write and direct King Conan.” Presumably, Schwarzenegger is referring to Mission: Impossible veteran Christopher McQuarrie.
All in all, it’s looking like Schwarzenegger could be keeping very busy in the years ahead, as the actor prepares to return to three of his biggest action franchises. Trachtenberg seems to have a deep-seated interest in bringing Schwarzengger back to the Predator fold, as ScreenRant recently reported that 2025’s Predator: Badlands nearly featured a cameo of Dutch in the same scene where Amber Midthunder’s Naru reappears. Now it appears that the two are in talks for a more substantial Dutch appearance in the next Predator movie.
On top of that, fans could be in for sequels to both 1985’s Commando and 1982’s Conan the Barbarian. Conan 3 has been trapped in development hell for decades at this point, with the project being alternately known as King Conan, King Conan: Crown of Iron, or The Legend of Conan. Reportedly, the movie sees Schwarzenegger’s aging barbarian on the throne of Aquilonia, building on the ending of the original film and ignoring the 1984 sequel Conan the Destroyer.
While there’s no guarantee that any of these projects will materialize (we’ve certainly been burned by Conan 3 rumors before), this is definitely an exciting time for Schwarzenegger fans. Let us know which of these three sequels you’re most excited for by voting in our poll and posting in the comments below:
As if this weren’t all enough, Schwarzenegger may also be returning to another opular Hollywood franchise. Back in 2021, we learned that he signed on to star in a Twins sequel called Triplets, with Danny DeVito also reprising his role and Tracy Morgan cast as the pair’s long-lost other brother. However, there’s been little movement on the project since, and the death of director Ivan Reitman likely set the project back.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
