Producer Chris Morgan Has an Update on Legend of Conan

There has not been much news lately on The Legend of Conan, the proposed film that would bring Arnold Schwarzenegger back to his second most famous role. But Empire got an update this week from producer Chris Morgan, who said, “I'm super excited! And Arnold is super excited too. It's the perfect movie for him, because it plays into his own journey."

Of course, excitement doesn’t amount to much if work is not being done, but the fact is that the script is currently going through another draft, this time from Gangster Squad and one-time Justice League writer Will Beall. Morgan explained, “I approached him early on in the process, but at the time he was unavailable and couldn’t do it. But then a couple of weeks after he passed on the project I got this package from him in the mail, and I opened it and it was a Conan sword, and on the envelope it said, ‘This you can trust!’ So when he called back a while later said he’d had a slot open up, we slammed him in immediately. He’s just perfect for it; he loves it as much as I do and he has a great voice of Conan. It just makes you happy!"

The Legend of Conan will be a direct sequel to John Milius’ 1982 Conan the Barbarian, basically pretending that 1984’s Conan The Destroyer and the 2011 reboot with future Aquaman Jason Momoa never happened. Also not in the mix: any direct adaptation of one of the original Robert E. Howard stories. “We’re incredibly respectful to Howard,” insisted Morgan. “I’m a huge fan of the stories and books, but I’m a super-huge fan of the first movie, because that crystallized and distilled it all for me. Milius just killed it. He did such a good job. And Legend Of Conan is really resonant and it really digs into the legacy of that original film. I'm already very proud of it."

There’s no release date nailed down yet for the film, but Morgan hinted, “We're figuring it out. I can't really say... but it's sooner than you might think!" In the meantime, Arnold will revisit his most famous role this summer in Terminator: Genisys, after which he’ll hopefully return to Cimmeria one more time.