Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to return as Conan in ‘King Conan,’ a new Conan the Barbarian film currently in development at 20th Century Studios. Christopher McQuarrie, known for the Mission: Impossible franchise, is attached to write and direct the project.

Representatives for 20th Century Studios declined to comment, but Schwarzenegger revealed the news himself during an appearance at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio over the weekend.

Speaking about the film, Schwarzenegger described the story:

“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.”

The character Conan the Barbarian was created by Robert E. Howard and first appeared in Weird Tales magazine during the 1930s. The stories follow a powerful wandering warrior who battles enemies, political schemes, and supernatural forces in the fictional Hyborian Age.

Schwarzenegger first played Conan in the 1982 film ‘Conan the Barbarian,’ which helped launch his career as a movie star after his success in bodybuilding. In the film, Conan seeks revenge against the cult leader Thulsa Doom, played by James Earl Jones. The movie earned more than $68 million worldwide and later gained a cult following. It was followed by the sequel Conan the Destroyer in 1984.

The original two films were released by Universal, while Lionsgate attempted to reboot the franchise in 2011 with Jason Momoa in the lead role. That version made over $63 million worldwide, but its reception did not lead to further installments.

Schwarzenegger was most recently seen in the Netflix series ‘Fubar,’ while Christopher McQuarrie comes off the success of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,’ which earned nearly $600 million worldwide.

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