Arnold Schwarzenegger is back with The Governator

The state he ruled for eight years may be effectively bankrupt, but the Arnold Schwarzenegger brand is proving to be as buoyant as ever after he appeared in Cannes to launch his new animated series, The Governator.

The cartoon has been developed with Stan Lee, the Marvel Comics legend and co-creator of Spider-Man and the X-Men. The former bodybuilder and action actor will "voice" himself - a retired governor of California who lives in a mansion with a hi-tech control room in the basement run by a group of teenagers who assist him in his part-time crime-fighting activities.

Schwarzenegger's character has already been described by CNET  as "a 63-year-old Austrian Batman that keeps young people locked in his basement". So a pop-cultural Josef Fritzl, then.

But the trailer for the series references other action movies and cartoons copiously, including Tron, Iron Man, Transformers - and, of course, Terminator.

The cartoon series, running to 52 tortuous episodes, will hit screens in late 2012, accompanied by a comic book and a 3D feature film - and, presumably a mountain of merchandising opportunities.

Even if The Governator fails to take off, Schwarzenegger fans will be pleased to know that other film roles are a distinct possibility.

Schwarzenegger, who appeared at the MIPTV Media Market Conference in Cannes to launch The Governator, told the Guardian: "I will also be in front of the camera, and I'm looking at many different scripts. We have somewhat held off with that because we really wanted to pay full attention to The Governator." ·