Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting candid, particularly when it comes to unmade sequels to some of his biggest hits. The star (and former governor), whose debut streaming series “FUBAR” is set to premiere on Netflix later this month, weighed in on follow-ups to “Conan the Barbarian,” “The Terminator” and, most surprisingly, “Triplets,” the sequel to his 1988 comedy “Twins” in a new interview, which he says is now dead.
Schwarzenegger places the blame squarely at the feet of Jason Reitman, the son of director Ivan Reitman. “Jason Reitman f–ked it up! Jason Reitman literally stopped the project when his father died,” Schwarzenegger said.
The original 1988 film, which starred Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito as long-lost twins, was directed by Ivan Reitman. After years of talking about it, the sequel “Triplets” started to coalesce in 2012, when Universal Pictures announced that a sequel was coming, with Eddie Murphy as the titular triplet. At the time, it was announced as a co-production with Montecito Picture Co., the company owned by Reitman, who would serve as a producer but not a director.
By 2021, however, Reitman was fully on board as a director, with Tracy Morgan playing the role originally written for Murphy. Photography was scheduled to begin in 2022. But in February 2022, tragedy struck and Reitman died unexpectedly in his sleep at the age of 75. Afterwards, apparently, Reitman’s son Jason (director of “Up in the Air” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”), put the kibosh on the project.
“I wanted to do it really badly. Danny DeVito wanted to do it really badly. We had the financing. When his father passed away, Jason says, ‘I never liked the idea’ and put a hold on it,” Schwarzenegger explained to THR. Disappointing.
Schwarzenegger didn’t rule out a future collaboration with DeVito, however. There are a few who will remember that in 1994, Schwarzenegger, DeVito and Reitman re-teamed for the decidedly unimpressive man-having-a-baby comedy “Junior.” “I’m developing another movie with Danny; he’s so much fun to work with and so talented,” Schwarzenegger said.
