We heard last month that the long-gestating Conan the Barbarian sequel may finally be on the fast track to getting done. Now word is that they’ve already picked a director. Unfortunately, it may be Brett Ratner.

The rumor comes from Dread Central, where they claim Nu Image’s producers are offering the movie to the X-Men franchise’s destroyer. It’s just a rumor, but a pretty horrible rumor if you’re any kind of Conan the Barbarian fan, when you consider Ratner’s genre track record.

This is far from a sure thing, so take a deep breath before lopping off your own head with that replica Conan sword. Ratner is, despite his reputation for sucking, actually pretty busy. He’s supposed to be off making a Frank Sinatra movie, in addition to several other pending things, which might make it hard for him to get going on Conan if Nu Image is really in as much of a hurry as they’ve seemed to be. Maybe he’ll be too busy ruining Frank Sinatra’s legacy to take a dump on Conan’s.