Conan The Barbarian 3: Will It Happen? Everything We Know (2024)

The third installment of the Conan the Barbarian movie franchise, The Legend of Conan, could bring back the glory of the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle from the 1980s, though details about its cast and story have been up in the air for more than a decade. Based on Robert E. Howard’s stories of the title character, the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian catapulted Schwarzenegger to Hollywood stardom, and it remains one of the best sword and sorcery movies today. After its success, Schwarzenegger returned to the franchise with the 1984 sequel Conan the Destroyer and the 1985 spinoff Red Sonja.

Schwarzenegger was expected to return to play Conan for another sequel in 1987, but Conan the Barbarian 3, which was then going to be titled Conan the Conqueror, never saw the light of day. A 2011 remake starred Jason Momoa as Conan, and that movie bombed at the box office and earned negative reviews. More than a decade later, Schwarzenegger has revealed that he’s ready to wield Conan’s sword again for another movie. However, there is still much speculation around the project, as not many concrete production details have been offered about The Legend of Conan.

Conan The Barbarian 3 Latest News

In May 2023, Arnold Schwarzenegger provided a cautious update regarding Conan 3, revealing that copyright issues are causing its delay. The project has been gestating for the last 10 years because producer Fredrik Malmberg, who made the 2011 reboot, still owns the rights to the character. As Schwarzenegger explained, “Until he sells the rights for one or two movies, or for the franchise, there’s nothing you can do about it.” Schwarzenegger also claimed that Malmberg told him that he had a deal for a Conan project at Netflix. However, the streaming giant confirmed to the actor that they had no such arrangement.

At the same time, Schwarzenegger had some good news regarding plans for The Legend of Conan. He confirmed that Conan the Barbarian’s original screenwriter, John Milius, has already penned a screenplay for the long-awaited third installment. Also, while the actor didn’t offer any names, he stated that there are directors who are eager to get involved with the project.

Conan The Barbarian 3 Is Not Confirmed

Conan the Barbarian 3 has not been officially confirmed by any studio. The reasons might stem from producer Fredrik Malmberg's unwillingness to sell the character rights. The project was first hinted at in October 2012 when Universal Pictures expressed interest in bringing back Arnold Schwarzenegger for a third movie called The Legend of Conan. As reported by IGN in 2014, Chris Morgan, Will Beall, and Andrea Berloff were working on a screenplay with plans for Schwarzenegger to reprise his role as Conan. Morgan was set to produce along with Malmberg. The report also revealed that in early 2013, Schwarzenegger was eyeing Peter Jackson’s New Zealand studio as a potential shooting location.

Those plans never came through as Universal scrapped their Conan the Barbarian 3 project in 2017. Morgan, who was clearly disappointed with the update, suggested that the studio possibly canned the project for budget-related complications and doubts about its relevance in the market. Morgan added that The Legend of Conan might turn into a TV series. Despite Universal’s disinterest in a third Conan movie, journalist Erik Davis tweeted in 2017 that Schwarzenegger told him it might still be in the cards. This served as an unofficial confirmation, but no more updates were reported until Schwarzenegger revealed in 2023 that anything regarding Conan 3 is up to Malmberg.

Conan The Barbarian 3 Cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger will likely return to play the title hero in Conan the Barbarian 3, a.k.a. The Legend of Conan. Even though the actor is no longer making any appearances in Terminator movies and never appeared in any of the Predator spinoffs, the Conan sequel is a passion project for the action star given how he has always expressed interest in it. Schwarzenegger’s return as the iconic barbarian after more than three decades would mark a full circle, as Conan was the role that first made audiences take him seriously as an actor. Initially judged for his Austrian accent and bulky frame, Schwarzenegger proved people wrong with Conan the Barbarian.

Apart from Schwarzenegger, The Legend of Conan can also capitalize on nostalgia by bringing back actors from the past two movies. Even though James Earl Jones’s antagonist, Thulsa Doom, was killed off in the first movie, a special appearance in a flashback or hallucinatory sequence would impress fans of the original. If Conan the Barbarian 3 is set after the events of Conan the Destroyer, then the second movie’s bandit warrior Zula can also join the cast with Grace Jones breaking her acting sabbatical. Red Sonja’s Brigitte Nielsen can similarly return, just like how she reprised her Rocky IV role many years later in Creed II.

Conan The Barbarian 3 Story Details

From the early 2010s when Universal was keen on developing the project, The Legend of Conan was envisioned as a more introspective action movie, similar to Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. While Eastwood earned acclaim in his younger days as the quintessential hero in Westerns, Unforgiven allowed him to play an aged cowboy who dwells on the morality of violence. A similar approach is expected from The Legend of Conan, with the title character well past his glory and reminiscing on the violent decades that have passed after his first adventure. When Chris Morgan was attached to the project, he told IGN that he wanted Schwarzenegger “to play his age."

However, now that Schwarzenegger has revealed that John Milius has also come up with a screenplay for Conan the Barbarian 3, the narrative and themes are again subject to speculation. While bringing back the campiness and violence of the original can help in feeding nostalgia, the sequel can surpass its predecessors if it follows its source material more closely. Despite being set in the fictional prehistoric era known as the Hyborian Age, all Conan movies have had a problem in faithfully adapting Robert E. Howard’s original stories. Conan the Barbarian 3 can fix this by merging the grandeur of the '80s movies and the rich legacy of Howard’s literature.