After 39 Years, Arnold Schwarzenegger Needs to Return To the Predator Series

Arnold Schwarzenegger is the king of action movies. In the 80s and early 90s, no actor on Earth was more popular than the former Mr. Olympia. With his bulging muscles, he was larger than life, and so were the characters he played in movies like The Terminator and its sequels, Total Recall, True Lies, The Running Man, and the seriously underrated Last Action Hero. In a recent interview, the nearly 80-year-old Schwarzenegger revealed that he was in talks to return for sequels to Conan and Commando. However, the most intriguing bit of info was that the ex-governor of California is also in discussions with Dan Trachtenberg to come back as Dutch in a new Predator movie. If it happens, there is one perfect way to do it.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Could Be Returning to Conan, Commando, and Predator

Arnold Schwarzenegger may have retired from active bodybuilding many decades ago, but he still gives back to the sport through his annual Arnold Sports Festival, held in Columbus, Ohio. There, he discussed some major bombshells about the future of his acting career. He said, "Fox Studios has kind of rediscovered Arnold," before going into detail that they had recently sent him a script for Commando 2, a sequel to his 1985 silly action hit. He also dropped a shocker that Christopher McQuarrie has been hired to direct a new Conan movie, which would make a trilogy after 1982's Conan the Barbarian and 1984's Conan the Destroyer.

The most intriguing reveal of all belonged to another franchise, which now includes a whopping 10 movies, but with Arnold only appearing in the original.

“They did an additional Predator and the director [Dan Trachtenberg] has been doing a great job of that. Now, he wants me to be in the next Predator. We’ve talked about it.”

Next to the Terminator, Dutch Schaefer Is Arnold Schwarzenegger's Greatest Character

In 1987, Arnold Schwarzenegger was already a household name. Three years earlier, he created his most iconic character as the nearly indestructible android in James Cameron's The Terminator. Predator was a different beast, literally. Although The Terminator saw him play the bad guy, Schwarzenegger was perfect as the quintessential 80s action hero in John McTiernan's genre classic.

Part action flick, part sci-fi horror, Predator is the best of both worlds. In it, Schwarzenegger is Dutch Schaefer, the leader of a rescue team in Central America. Even without a monster, we've got a fun movie thanks to its wild cast of characters, which includes Carl Weather's Al Dillon and Jesse Ventura's Blain Cooper. Predator oozes badass cool. Think of it now, and the first thing that probably comes to mind are Dutch and Al's bicep-busting greeting and lines like Blain's, "I ain't got time to bleed."

Still, as every other character eventually dies, Predator belongs to Schwarzenegger. With the antagonist being a giant alien, perfectly played by Kevin Peter Hall, who is loaded with weapons of sophisticated, otherworldly technology, it took the brains and brawn of Dutch to make a human opponent so realistic. Dutch is Schwarzenegger at his peak, and nearly 40 years later, it's time for him to return.

Dutch Must Return in a Sequel to 'Predator: Killer of Killers'

As Schwarzenegger aged, politics became his career, and with action movies giving way to the era of comic book superheroes, Arnold's time at the top ended. He still dabbles in action from time to time in movies like 2017's Killing Gunther and the Netflix series FUBAR. Still, everyone gets old, and at almost 80, one of Hollywood's greatest heroes of all-time is showing his age. It felt a little sad and awkward to see him older and still playing the Terminator character in Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate. According to Schwarzenegger, his age will be part of a new Conan movie.

“They don’t write them like I’m 40 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 40 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."

Predator could do that too, but does anyone want to see an 80-year-old Dutch fighting aliens? Dutch was an action icon. He should be preserved as such. A live action sequel with an elderly Dutch kicking ass would be too over the top to be believable, even for Predator. Still, there is a perfect way to bring him back to the franchise that is not about nostalgia or fan service.

Predator: Killer of Killers perfectly sets up Dutch's return with the ending twist reveal that he and other past winners are being held by the Yautja in suspended animation. In a sequel to a story begging to be told, Arnold can be a voice actor, something which he has never done before, for a character who really is preserved like we remember him. Dutch could be part of a team again, aligning himself with Ursa (Lindsay VaVanchy), Prey's Naru (Amber Midthunder), and Predator 2's Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover can return as well!) to kick Predator ass together. Who wouldn't want to see that, especially if they put it on the big screen this time?

This may have been a reach a few years ago. However, Predator: Killer of Killers was so great, and the twist ending was accepted by fans rather than rejected as some sort of fan service. At this point, it wouldn't make sense for Arnold NOT to do it. One more time, Schwarzenegger can be the action hero who saves the day, as he once was, but in a medium that feels fresh rather than just being another convoluted IP sequel like his latter Terminator movies were.

Predator is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.