It’s kinda crazy that Arnold Schwarzenegger has never reprised the role of Dutch Schaefer, his character from the original Predator. Dutch was referenced in both Predator 2 and Predators, but we never actually saw what became of him after the events of the first film. This despite a cool cameo being written into one of the original drafts of Predators.

As you may recall, it was rumored at one point that Arnold would be making a cameo appearance in Shane Black’s The Predator, but that didn’t work out for a simple reason. As Black explains this week to Digital Spy, Schwarzenegger was offered the chance to appear in this year’s brand new sequel but declined due to the role being too small for his liking.

“The studio wanted a fresher movie that featured an evolving cast,” Black told the site, revealing new details. “They didn’t want to hinge the movie on the re-emergence of Schwarzenegger. It would probably be more of a matter of his showing up briefly and just participating at the very end, at the climax of the movie.”

Black continued, “Understandably – and believe me, I completely get it – he said, ‘Look, that’s kind of a small part, and I don’t really think I want to do that. I’m off to do Terminator with Jim Cameron, basically. Or for Jim Cameron’.”

Going forward, there’s always the potential that Arnold could return as Dutch.

“If there’s another movie, there’s no reason why he couldn’t be either in it, or the star of it, or whatever someone decides at a future date,” Black noted in his chat with the site.

The Predator returns to theaters this weekend, September 14.