Schwarzenegger Says Christopher McQuarrie is on ‘King Conan’

(Left) Christopher McQuarrie, writer and director of ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.’ (Right) Arnold Schwarzenegger in ‘Conan the Barbarian’. Photo: Universal Pictures.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced Christopher McQuarrie for ‘King Conan’.
The ‘Mission Impossible’ writer/director is reportedly aboard the next stage of the character.
Schwarzenegger also hinted at a return to the ‘Predator’ universe.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger talks, people listen. And when he talks potential projects featuring iconic characters he’s played in the past, people listen even more intently.

You can imagine the reaction, then, when at a recent Arnold Sports Festival in Ohio, he let slip that no less a filmmaker than Christopher McQuarrie –– who has spent the last few years bringing us ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies is aboard to write and direct ‘King Conan,’ with Arnold back as Robert E. Howard’s warrior figure, previously seen in 1982’s ‘Conan the Barbarian’ and 1984’s ‘Conan the Destroyer’.

While there was some skepticism given the long development and previously unsuccessful attempts at a Conan follow-up, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that McQuarrie is indeed on board.

Related Article: Every ‘Mission: Impossible’ Movie Ranked from Easy to Impossible!

What has Arnold Schwarzenegger said about ‘King Conan’?

Director Christopher McQuarrie on the set of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Here’s Schwarzenegger’s latest statement on the project:

“They just hired a fantastic writer/director who did Tom Cruise’s last four movies. They just hired Christopher McQuarrie to write and direct ‘King Conan.’ Now, what they do is that they write the part. They don’t write them like I’m forty years old; you write it to be age-appropriate. I’ll still go in there and kick some ass, but it will be different…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. And now, of course, there’s all kinds of special effects.”

What else did Schwarzenegger hint at?

In good form, Schwarzenegger also let slip that he’s talked to ‘Predator: Badlands’ director Dan Trachtenberg about returning to one of his other big action franchises.

We’ll have to wait and see whether any of this comes to pass, but it’s certainly an exciting update!

(L to R) Thia (Elle Fanning) and Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) in 20th Century Studios’ ‘Predator: Badlands’ film. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.