Much akin to the Alien series, it’s fair to say that the Terminator franchise saw its creative zenith peek during its first two incarnations: 1984’s The Terminator and 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. From there, the iconic sci-fi property has been mired by an increasingly convoluted string of sequels that failed to truly capture the lightning in the bottle of the first duo of classics. Now, five years after the release of Terminator: Dark Fate, and in the midst of Netflix’s anime-inspired reimagining Terminator Zero making waves on streaming, James Cameron — the writer-director behind the first two films and the brainchild of the Terminator IP — has expressed interest in continuing the beloved series.
James Cameron Discusses the Future Plans of The Terminator Franchise
In an interview with Empire Magazine (the November 2024 edition), James Cameron spoke candidly about how much he’d love to explore more ideas involving the Terminator licence. In fact, from the way he speaks in the interview, it clearly sounds like the wheels are already in motion.
You’ve got powerless main characters, essentially, fighting for their lives, who get no support from existing power structures, and have to circumvent them but somehow maintain a moral compass. And then you throw AI into the mix. Those principles are sound principles for storytelling today, right? So I have no doubt that subsequent Terminator films will not only be possible, but they’ll kick ass. But this is the moment where you jettison all the specific iconography.
As you can see, it appears that the new direction that James Cameron would like to go in may be a full-on reboot of the entire series. Of course, with the rise of AI in today’s modern world, the robots-vs-machines topic is still very much a relevant talking point. The award-winning 70-year-old filmmaker continued:
It’s more than a plan. That’s what we’re doing. That’s all I’ll say for right now.
From what we can gather, the intention of rebooting Terminator would likely mean that franchise stalwarts — Arnold Schwarzenegger, 77, and Linda Hamilton, 67, — will be sidelined in favor of a brand-new cast. That would certainly make sense given the age of both stars. Still, it’s hard to imagine the series continuing on without the star power of Arnie, right?
Recently, the first season of Netflix’s animated series Terminator Zero debuted on streaming, and has been getting rave reviews from both critics and audiences alike. At the time of writing, the eight-episode series boasts an impressive 86 percent critical rating and a 78 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. In essence, the success of Terminator Zero has likely helped reinvigorate interest in the science fiction property.
Whether the next iteration in the Terminator franchise will be developed into a TV series or a fully-fledged movie remains to be seen. But, we’d by lying if we said that we weren’t just a teeny bit excited to see those iconic killer robots return in some shape or form.
