Nearly 45 years after first wielding the sword of a legendary warrior, Arnold Schwarzenegger is officially returning to the role that helped launch his Hollywood career.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the actor and former California governor is set to star in King Conan, a new installment in the long-running Conan the Barbarian franchise, with filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie attached to write and direct the project for 20th Century Studios.
The upcoming film will be the third entry in the series connected to Schwarzenegger’s original portrayal of the character. McQuarrie—best known for writing The Usual Suspects and directing multiple Mission: Impossible films starring Tom Cruise—has spent the past decade working within that blockbuster series. King Conan marks his first time directing a non-Mission: Impossible feature since 2012’s Jack Reacher.
The project continues a cinematic legacy that began with the 1982 fantasy film Conan the Barbarian, directed by John Milius and co-written by Oliver Stone. That movie introduced Schwarzenegger to global audiences and helped establish the muscular, sword-and-sorcery aesthetic that defined many fantasy films of the era.
A sequel, Conan the Destroyer, followed in 1984, arriving just months before Schwarzenegger cemented his action-movie stardom with The Terminator.
During a recent appearance at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, Schwarzenegger discussed the concept behind the new film, which centers on an older version of the warrior king.
“It’s a great story where Conan was [king for] 40 years, and he gets complacent, and now he gets forced out of the kingdom, slowly,” Schwarzenegger said. “Then there’s conflict, and then he somehow comes back, and then there’s all kinds of madness and violence and magic and creatures.”
The character of Conan traces back much further than the movies. Created by American author Robert E. Howard, the barbarian hero first appeared in pulp magazine stories published in Weird Tales beginning in 1932.
Set in the fictional Hyborian Age—an era imagined as existing between the fall of Atlantis and the rise of recorded civilizations—the stories follow a wandering warrior whose adventures span kingdoms filled with sorcerers, monsters, and rival warlords.
Howard wrote 21 Conan stories before his death in 1936, and the character later expanded into novels, comics, television shows, and video games.
Over the decades, Conan has remained one of fantasy’s most recognizable figures, thanks in part to Marvel Comics runs in the 1970s and Frank Frazetta’s iconic cover artwork. The character has also appeared in animated series, role-playing games, and a 2011 reboot film starring Jason Momoa.