Arnold Schwarzenegger became a movie star thanks to The Terminator, and he also launched a franchise that, despite having more bad movies than good, has continued to thrive into the modern day. It’s a safe bet we will get more Terminator movies one day. Arnold may even be in them. However, the franchise Arnold apparently has his eye on returning to is his first franchise, Conan.
Arnold made two Conan movies back in the early days of his career. The second one, Conan the Destroyer, even teased yet another sequel, but that movie never came to pass. Speaking with Collider, Arnold said he’s still interested in making that sequel because he thinks with the right team, there’s a good story there. Arnold said…
Sometimes I wish that we could do more Conan sequels, because I think that if you have the right director and the right writing, there could be a really, really good franchise to continue King Conan and stuff like that.
The Conan sequel indicated that Schwarzenegger’s character would eventually become king. The benefit of that is that a story with Conan as king can still be told today, and considering how popular legacy sequels are, Conan would seem like a strong contender for just that sort of movie.
There have certainly been attempts to make a third Conan movie over the years, usually going under the name King Conan, and there have even been reports that such a movie was happening. However, for one reason or another, the projects have faltered and never materialized.
One of the most significant stumbling blocks has been the rights. It’s unclear if the current movie rights rest with the estate of Robert E. Howard (the creator of the character) or if some individual/ studio currently owns it. Arnold and his team would need to make some sort of deal in order to even be legally allowed to make their King Conan movie, before any actual work on a script could realistically begin.
Considering how many movies have seen sequels decades after their last installment, just in the last few years, it’s almost a shock that we haven’t seen a push toward a new Conan movie. The good news is that if it takes more time, we’re not exactly in a rush. Any Conan movie Arnold would make now could still be made in a few years.
As somebody who loved the first two Conan movies, and who watched them more times than I can count as a kid, I would love to see a return to the franchise. Arnold’s still got it in him to play Conan again, and doing it as an elderly king might actually be more interesting than anything they would have done decades ago.