I tend to take things said by Arnold Schwarzenegger with a grain of salt. Nothing against the guy; but he’s like a lot of veteran actors who hype up the vaguest possibility of them returning to a beloved franchise. So when the ex-Governator appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and claimed to be developing sequels to Predator, Commando, Terminator, and Conan, I gave him the side eye.
“Yeah, absolutely. That’s a lot of stuff,” Schwarzenegger said. “But I mean, you know, it’s like I’m looking forward to see the scripts because that’s where the action is. What’s not on the page is not on the stage. So I just wait for the scripts to get perfected and then we go and start shooting those things.”
Schwarzenegger confirmed what we already knew, which is that his Conan movie is in fact, King Conan.
“It would be King Conan. King Conan. So he’s like a Conan that is my age, that has been king for 40 years and, you know, now is getting somewhat complacent, and they want to overthrow him and get rid of him. So it would be a story like that.”
So the King Conan thing is already in the works, with Christopher McQuarrie set to write and direct. Filming begins next year, and it’ll be McQuarrie’s first without Tom Cruise in nearly three decades. Also, we know he’s at least been in touch with Dan Trachtenberg about Predator, following the silent return of Schwarzenegger’s character Dutch in Predator: Killer of Killers. But with Trachtenberg busy with his new Paramount deal, it’s doubtful this has gotten very far.
Schwarzenegger hasn’t had a major role since Terminator: Dark Fate in 2019, and it didn’t do well. He hasn’t been part of a successful one since Terminator 3. Just seems off that anyone would be willing to fork over his salary on a sequel nobody is asking for.
Commando is the oddest of them all. Schwarzenegger long ago turned down a sequel to the 1985 action classic. Months ago, he teased a script that came in, but nothing has moved forward since. At least nothing public-facing. Again, nobody is even thinking about this one. The chances of it getting off the ground are slim.
