Arnold Schwarzenegger has been firing on all cylinders since his return to acting following the end of his Governorship.

Reprising his role in The Expendables 2 this summer, he’ll next be seen in his first leading role in a decade in January in The Last Stand, which will be followed by The Tomb in the autumn opposite Sylvester Stallone, and David Ayer’s Ten – the first image from which we saw tonight.

The actor has a number of potential projects lined up to follow that, and now Deadline are reporting that one more has been added to the fire in The Legend of Conan.

The film will see Arnie reprising the role of Conan that really launched his career in 1982 with Conan the Barbarian, followed by its ’84 sequel, Conan the Destroyer.

Schwarzenegger would go on to cement his iconic status as an action star in James Cameron’s The Terminator, with Commando, Predator, and Total Recall following over the next few years.

Now he’ll be working once more with Universal, who distributed the first two films in the ’80s, and now hold worldwide rights to the film.

The film will be produced by Frederik Malmberg (Conan the Barbarian, Broken City) and Chris Morgan (Fast Five, 47 Ronin). Morgan has developed the story, and might write the script.

Universal are aiming to have the film in theatres for Summer 2014, and Morgan’s involvement with the script will depend on whether he can also write Fast and Furious 7 in time as well. If not, then he’ll be heavily involved as a producer, with The Legend of Conan being his dream project.

Malmberg has said that the new project intends to not only skip over the 2011 reboot, Conan the Barbarian (starring Jason Momoa), but also the 1984 sequel, and will set up shop in the wake of the original 1982 ending:

“The original ended with Arnold on the throne as a seasoned warrior, and this is the take of the film we will make,” Malmberg told me. “It’s that Nordic Viking mythic guy who has played the role of king, warrior, soldier and mercenary, and who has bedded more women than anyone, nearing the last cycle of his life. He knows he’ll be going to Valhalla, and wants to go out with a good battle.”

With Morgan elaborating,

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

So if all goes according to plan, The Legend of Conan will be bringing Arnie back to the big screen in one of the best-known roles of his career in Summer 2014. With so many massive blockbusters already set for that season – Godzilla, Ninja Turtles, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Transformers 4, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, and Guardians of the Galaxy, to name but a few – it will be interesting to see exactly where The Legend of Conan will be positioned. More as we get it.