Now that Arnold Schwarzenegger is out of office and officially set to embark on his ‘acting’ comeback, details are starting to emerge on potential projects for the former California Governor. The Austrian Oak spoke briefly about his next steps at the Arnold Classic a few weeks back and stated that while he’d received offers to return to The Terminator, Predator and The Running Man franchises, he was busy packaging a comic book character and would be making an announcement late-March / early-April. Meanwhile, THR revealed that Arnie’s reps had confirmed he was involved with ‘an international TV series’, with more details to follow at a press conference at Cannes on April 4th.
Since then Deadline have updated the story, speculating on two possibilities – the first, that Schwarzenegger has teamed up with former DIC Entertainment (Inspector Gadget, The Real Ghostbusters) chairman Andy Heyward for an “aspirational animated show”, and secondly, that he could be considering a collaboration with Marvel legend Stan Lee. That would certainly make sense given Arnie’s recent comments, as quite frankly it would be hard to take him seriously in a live-action superhero role these days.
Putting those possibilities to one side for the moment, Tom Arnold has also been doing his regular promotional stint for the rumoured sequel to True Lies, stating that James Cameron has written a script with Jeff Eastin (White Collar) and that True Lies 2 is “literally a reality”. Now Tom’s been pushing this line for years but with Cameron reportedly executive-producing a True Lies TV show for ABC (and enjoying a recent Brazilian adventure with his good pal Arnie) could it be that Harry Tasker is set for a return to the small screen?
Now of course this is pure speculation but Schwarzenegger is unlikely to throw himself into a starring role in a TV series at this point in his career but having him pop up now and again in a ‘Charlie from Charlie’s Angels‘ type capacity would surely be more than plausible. Not only would it boost ratings for the proposed series and give us a link to 1994 movie, but it would also provide Arnie and Cameron with an excuse to continue their working relationship and may finally shut Tom Arnold up once and for all.
I guess we’ll find out on April 4th.
Originally published March 26, 2011. Updated November 6, 2019.
