Arnold Schwarzenegger to Star in 'Governator' TV Show, Comic Book

The former California governor and actor is working with Stan Lee.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning to showbiz as a cartoon and comic-book character named The Governator, he tells Entertainment Weekly.

According to EW, the actor and two-term California governor is working together with comic book legend Stan Lee on an animated TV series and comic book that will mix the real life of the actor/politician with the superhuman exploits of the characters he’s played in films.

The news set off a flurry of online speculation that, given EW’s April 1. sale date, the story was an April Fool’s gag.

But Schwarzenegger had previously announced plans for a new television series, details of which he is to unveil at international TV market MIPTV next week.

“It takes my entire career, if its body building, if it’s acting, if its’ the governorship and combines it into one,” Schwarzenegger said in a video interview posted on EW’s site. “The Governator is designed to fight crime, to fight natural disasters…this guy will jump and solve the problems.”



Schwarzenegger said the cartoon was his plan B since the U.S. constitution does not allow him – a foreign-born American citizen – to run for President.

“Otherwise, I wouldn’t be standing here in a leather jacket, I’d be dressed up in a suit,” he said. Schwarzenegger added that he has not discussed The Governator cartoon with his wife, Maria Schriver. “I think it will be a big surprise for her,” he said.

The cartoon is still in development and won’t be finished until next year but Stan Lee revealed some details of the project. In the series, Schwarzenegger decides to become a crime fighter after leaving the governor’s office and, Batman-like, builds a Arnold Cave, a “secret high-tech crime-fighting center under his house in Brentwood,” according to Lee.

The series’ plot will see the Governator battling the evil organization Gangsters Imposters Racketeers Liars & Irredeemable Ex-cons (or G.I.R.L.I.E. Men) and, Lee claims, will include real-life people including Shriver and Schwarzenegger’s children, in its storylines.