Arnold Schwarzenegger never actually retires a character—he just lets them ferment. And in this case, the character has been fermenting for quite some time. At his Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, Arnold casually dropped a nuke on the fantasy genre: King Conan is finally, officially moving forward at 20th Century Studios and he’s bringing Mission: Impossible franchise director Christopher McQuarrie along for the ride.
Whether it was titled Crown of Iron, The Legend of Conan, or just King Conan, the project has spent more time in development hell than most of you have been alive. Originally, John Milius had a script that was supposed to turn into a gritty two-film epic. Then, around 2012, Fast & Furious architect Chris Morgan was attached to a version described as a “fantasy Unforgiven,” focusing on an old man who has to shake off the rust. The project hit a brick wall in 2019 due to a mess of rights issues that Arnold himself once called a “thorn in the side” of the sequel.
The McQuarrie Factor
Bringing in McQuarrie—the man who basically saved the Mission: Impossible franchise and turned it into a masterclass in practical action—is a massive statement. Arnold confirmed that McQuarrie is set to write and direct, while also stating he’s putting together a script for his current age of 78, rather than continuing to pretend he’s 40.
Tonally, fans can probably expect something closer to Conan the Barbarian‘s operatic brutality rather than the campier Conan the Destroyer. The story beats Arnold teased sound like classic Robert E. Howard.
With King Conan, it’s a great old story that Conan was forty years as King and now he gets forced out of the kingdom and there’s conflict, of course, but somehow he comes back and there’s all kinds of madness, violence, magic and creatures and stuff like that.
-Arnold Schwarzenegger
With potential returns to both the Predator and Commando franchises also in the works, Arnold is entering his Legacy Era, and if McQuarrie can capture the raw, heavy metal soul of John Milius‘s original world, King Conan could be the definitive final chapter fans have been waiting 40 years to see.
