Schwarzenegger Continues Comeback with 'The Legend of Conan'

We’re all glad to see Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to what he does best, but his movie comeback is getting a little ridiculous.

While he’s off filming more interesting roles for directors like David Ayer and Jee-woon Kim, the former Governator has penned a deal with Universal to reprise his role as Conan the Barbarian for the upcoming film, “The Legend of Conan.”

If you recall, the franchise was already rebooted last year with Jason Mamoa taking over the giant sword and clunky dialogue. I guess that reboot will just be ignored. According to producer Fredrik Malmberg, the original sequel to the Schwarzenegger film may be ignored as well:

“The original ended with Arnold on the throne as a seasoned warrior, andthis is the take of the film we will make. It’s that Nordic Vikingmythic guy who has played the role of king, warrior, soldier andmercenary, and who has bedded more women than anyone, nearing the lastcycle of his life. He knows he’ll be going to Valhalla, and wants to goout with a good battle.”

The film will also be produced and possibly written by Chris Morgan who added the following:

“After the original seminal movie, all that came after looked silly tome. Robert E. Howard’s mythology and some great philosophy fromNietzsche to Atilla the Hun was layered in the original film. Peoplesay, he didn’t speak for the first 20 minutes of the film, but that wascalculated in depicting this man who takes control of life with his ownhand. This movie picks up Conan where Arnold is now in his life, and wewill be able to use the fact that he has aged in this story. I love theproperty of Conan so much that I wouldn’t touch it unless we came upwith something worthy. We think this is a worthy successor to theoriginal film. Think of this as Conan’s Unforgiven.”

Conan’s “Unforgiven?” I didn’t realize the famed Barbarian was capable of such deep themes. The original film, directed by John Milius, worked because the director understood the character and his story. The idea of seeing a 65-year old Schwarzengger run around shirtless can’t be exciting for too many people. The man hasn’t exactly aged with the same rough grace as his counterparts, and that’s probably due to his stint as the Republican governor of California. 

However, this still could work. Sylvester Stallone brought back John Rambo after a lengthy hiatus and kicked lots of ass. However, Stallone took on the role of director and writer as well. Schwarzenegger certainly has some interesting work up his sleeve with films like “Ten” and “The Last Stand” coming soon, so hopefully “Conan” will be taking the same thoughtful approach. We’ll cross our fingers that the semi-retired and NRA champion Milius will get a chance to bring back one of his famous characters himself.