Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Sword & Sorcery Sequel Is More Exciting Than Returning to Either of His Sci-Fi Franchises

Arnold Schwarzenegger told us, “I’ll be back,” and he wasn’t kidding. Schwarzenegger has been slowly but surely retracing his greatest franchise roles since the mid-2010s, starting with two more appearances in the Terminator franchise, Terminator Genisys (2015) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). To be honest, neither of those films solidified Schwarzenegger’s comeback status, as they were both flops; but while Terminator has generally been struggling to reclaim its relevance, other Schwarzenegger roles have a lot more potential.

Arnold has already secured a place in the new era of the Predator franchise, as director Dan Trachtenberg (Prey, Predator: Badlands) revealed during San Diego Comic-Con 2025 that Schwarzenegger will be returning to his Predator role of special forces operative “Dutch” in an upcoming Predator project, and that is certainly exciting. However, most fans tend to forget that there’s another franchise that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a world-famous movie star, and it has arguably the greatest potential to give him a prestigious return performance.

There’s One Comeback Role Arnold Schwarzenegger Hasn’t Done Yet (But Needs To)

Before The Terminator (1984) or Predator (1987) ever hit the screen, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in Conan the Barbarian, director John Milius and co-writer Oliver Stone’s big-screen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s ‘sword and sorcery’ pulp serials of the 1930s. The film starred Schwarzenegger as “Conan,” a member of the barbaric tribe known as the Crimmerians. After his parents and people are slaughtered by the savage cultists of Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), Conan grows up in bondage and trains to become an elite gladiator, eventually earning his freedom. Conan allies with a witch, a fellow warrior, a wizard, and others, and leads a bloody, violent campaign against Doom.

The sequel film, Conan the Destroyer (1984), saw Conan take on another campaign to help a treacherous Queen who really intends to sacrifice her niece, the princess, to a dark god. That film ended with Conan refusing an offer of marriage and rule, as he will one day secure those boons for himself.

Read Next

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Predator Return: 3 Stories the Franchise Needs to Tell

The Conan film series ended after the mixed reception to The Destroyer, save for a 2011 remake with Jason Momoa, which bombed at the box office ($63.5 million on a $90 million budget) and got eviscerated by critics. However, the character and his lore have always been bigger than the films: various comics about Conan started in the 1970s and have run up until the present day, with Marvel and Dark Horse Comics being the two big publishers of Conan books. They kept the fires burning bright enough that there have been attempts to do a legacy movie sequel with Schwarzenegger. But then, there have been so many stories, questions, and iterations of Conan that it’s hard to keep track of which source material to mine for a new film. Still, one concept tends to stand out from the rest…

King Conan Is The Movie Arnold Schwarzenegger Needs to Make (And It May Be Happening)

“King Conan” is a story concept that dates back to series creator Robert E. Howard’s writings from the early 1950s. They imagine Conan as an older man, a king and ruler (of “Aquilonia”), dealing with either conspiracies of his court (like assassinations and mutiny) or adventures he has as a king, or an old man sharing tales about the adventures and trials that made him a king with a younger historian or scribe. In several versions of King Conan, the titular warrior is an old king who is alone and scarred (literally and figuratively) from years living the life of a barbarian conqueror and warrior.

Schwarzenegger has recently revealed that Mission: Impossible franchise director Christopher McQuarrie is working on the King Conan movie, stating, “They just hired a fantastic writer/director who did Tom Cruise’s last four movies. They just hired him (Christopher McQuarrie) to write and direct King Conan.” McQuarrie is known for making darker espionage/Noir films, but that same style could be great if applied to the right ‘sword and sorcery’ film. In a post-Game of Thrones era, audiences are primed and ready for a medieval-themed story about political intrigue and backstabbing at a royal court, with supernatural mysticism mixed in.

But if we’re talking about bringing back Schwarzenegger, King Conan is a chance to get deeper than the superstar actor’s usual fare; it’s a chance to get a mix of blockbuster filmmaking and dramatic meta awareness – a character study of Conan’s life (and Schwarzenegger’s career) as it enters its winter season (old age and death). ‘One final quest’ in the film that would have double meaning, as Schwarzenegger returns to one last legacy role fans have been waiting for, and does some deep reflection on what the journey from that first breakout action role in Conan the Barbarian led to the epic life he’s lived, and brought him full-circle back to King Conan.

Fingers crossed that after many decades of trying, King Conan finally makes it to the big screen. Let us know how much you want to see the legacy sequel (or not) over on the ComicBook Forum!