Arnold Schwarzenegger recently reunited with Conan the Barbarian director John Milius, and the two apparently spoke about the next potential movie King Conan. In a new image posted on Instagram, Schwarzenegger is shown frollicking with Milius at Silicon Valley Comic-Con. “Yes, I talked to him about his King Conan script,” the actor says in the caption, apparently knowing fans were definitely going to ask. Of course, Schwarzenegger stops short of revealing anything about the script or the status of its potential to see the light of day, but the photo does keep the hope alive that we’ll one day get the proper Conan sequel fans of the franchise deserve.
The relationship between Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Milius dates all the way back to the early ’80s. It was certainly Schwarzenegger’s breakout role as the titular warrior in Conan the Barbarian in 1982, which Milius had directed and co-written with Oliver Stone. Schwarzenegger would then reprise the role in 1984’s Conan the Destroyer, although Milius was unable to helm the sequel himself as he wasn’t available at the time. By the early 2000s, Milius had written a screenplay for his planned sequel King Conan, although Schwarzenegger’s work as the Governor of California would have prevented him from returning if the movie was made at the time. Of course, Schwarzenegger has since delved pretty heavily back into acting following his political career and would now be available for such a project.
As recently as this year, Schwarzenegger continues to make it clear he would love to play an older version of Conan. According to the actor, the newest version of the King Conan script would feature a 70-year-old version of the character now reigning as king. While Schwarzenegger loves the screenplay John Milius is working on and apparently still talking to the director about it, what’s apparently keeping the movie from happening lies with the current rights-holders of the franchise. “The only one who really has to pull the trigger there is the people who own the Conan rights to do a movie. Let’s go to Netflix or whoever it is, let’s hire a director who’s very creative and can elevate the project to make it a winning project,” Schwarzenegger said in March. “I hope it will be done very soon because I think it’s a great idea.”
The closest we’ve gotten to a sequel to the Conan movies from the ’80s is the 2011 remake from director Marcus Nispel. This time, Aquaman star Jason Momoa played the mighty warrior, co-starring with Rachel Nichols, Stephen Lang, Rose McGowan, and Ron Perlman. While Momoa is decent in the role, the movie was a total disaster, completely bombing at the box office and garnering mostly negative reviews. This apparently killed any potential plans to bring Momoa back for a sequel, putting the franchise back into dormancy once again. Perhaps there wasn’t anyone asking for a Conan remake, but with so many fans hoping for a sequel to the original movies, we might one day finally see a true Legend of Conan sequel hit the big screen.
We may or may not ever see Schwarzenegger as Conan again some day, but we will definitely see him reprise another one of his most iconic franchise roles very soon. Terminator: Dark Fate will once again star Schwarzenegger, reuniting him with Terminator 2 co-stars Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong. Look for that movie to release on Nov. 1, 2019. The image of Schwarzenegger and Milius comes to us from Arnold Schwarzenegger on Instagram.
