Arnold Schwarzenegger Returns as Conan in New Cover

Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday beamed over Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian #1.

The comic book, from writer Jason Aaron (The Mighty Thor) and artist Mahmud Asrar (All-New, All-Different Avengers), features on its cover the action star in his glory from the 1982 John Milius-directed adventure fantasy.

“This is a fantastic comic book. Look at this. Conan the Conqueror, wow. This almost looks like me. But this one,” Schwarzenegger says when revealing its cover in a video published to Instagram, “definitely looks like me. It’s a movie that I wanted to do for a long time. Let’s do it.”

The 71-year-old movie star has long been attached to The Legend of Conan under Fast & Furious franchise writer-producer Chris Morgan.

In 2016, Schwarzenegger said the stalled project — which he calls Conan the Conqueror, a title borrowed from the never-made sequel to 1984’s Conan the Destroyer — will happen.

“Conan the Conqueror, where I’m sitting on the throne for years and years — decades, and then all of the sudden, the time comes when they want to overthrow me,” Schwarzenegger said during an Experience with Arnold Schwarzenegger event.

“So that story will be told and that movie will be done.”

Schwarzenegger confirmed that year an “unbelievably well-written” script was completed and was now in the hunt for a director. In 2017, Morgan reported Universal Pictures dropped the project.

“At the end of the day, the studio decided that they weren’t gonna make that. I gotta say, it’s honestly a heartbreak. I love that first movie so much, so much, it’s one of my favorite movies,” Morgan told EW.

“We had Will Beall do a draft on [the Legend of Conan script]. He killed it. Our take was Conan, 30 years later, a story like the Clint Eastwood Unforgiven. It was so awesome.”

“Ultimately,” he added, “the budget was big, the studio was not really sure of the title, and the relevance in the marketplace. They ended up letting it go.”

Schwarzenegger next returns in the James Cameron-produced Terminator 6, tentatively titled Terminator: Dark Fate, where Schwarzenegger plays “a different Terminator than you’ve ever seen before,” according to Cameron.

Conan the Barbarian #1 sold out and its second issue sold out at Diamond before reaching stores, indicating interest in the sword-slashing hero remains high. Second printings are available in comic shops now and other merchandise is available via the Conan Comic website.