Cameron clearly has a quiet period coming up, despite his hopeful three further Avatar sequels… (Picture: Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)
James Cameron has revealed that a relaunch of the Terminator franchise is ‘in discussion’.
Furthermore, if it goes ahead, the 68-year-old writer, director and producer already knows what he would want to re-focus the Terminator films on, nearly 40 years after the first.
The Hollywood heavyweight, who has just released Avatar: The Way of Water after a 13-year wait, had one of his earlier major successes with The Terminator in 1984.
It starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in his most iconic role as the T-800 cyborg, sent from the future to kill John Connor, the son of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who would grow up to be the leader of the human resistance in a dystopian future where machines and computers have become self-aware.
Cameron created the whole concept himself but hasn’t actually helmed a Terminator film since Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991.
Talking in a new interview about themes in his films, Cameron said he was ‘pretty concerned’ about the misuse of AI as it ‘could literally be the end of the world’ and ‘no technology has never not been weaponised’.
Schwarzenegger cemented his movie star status as the T-800 in the first Terminator, before returning for the 1991 sequel (Picture: CBS via Getty Images)
Is this sounding familiar and Skynet-esque?
It’s unsurprising then that he added he would like to focus more on AI in a possible reboot of the Terminator franchise.
‘Well, the Avatar films are about the environment; I’m not dealing with AI,’ he explained on the Smartless podcast, before revealing that talks were taking place.
‘If I were to do another Terminator film and maybe try to launch that franchise again – which is in discussion, but nothing has been decided – I would make it much more about the AI side of it than bad robots gone crazy.’
Original star Linda Hamilton came back for the sequel too, before joining Schwarzenegger once more in 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate (Picture: Allstar/Tristar Pictures)
Aide from Cameron’s original two instalments in the franchise, we’ve since had Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003, 2009’s Terminator Salvation, and Terminator Genisys in 2015, when Schwarzenegger reprised his role once more.
Terminator: Dark Fate in 2019 tempted Hamilton back into the fold alongside Schwarzenegger, as Cameron returned to produce and help with story development.
There was also TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles along the way, starring Lena Headey, which lasted two seasons in 2008 and 2009.
Despite all of these offerings, none have really resonated with audiences – or at the box office – as well as Cameron’s original two.
In an interview with Deadline ahead of Avatar 2’s recent release, Cameron said he was ‘reasonably happy’ with how Terminator: Dark Fate turned out, but admitted it became ‘your granddad’s Terminator movie’ with the inclusion of both Hamilton and Schwarzenegger.
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He commented: ‘We didn’t see that. We loved it, we thought it was cool, you know, that we were making this sort of direct sequel to a movie that came out in 1991.
‘And young moviegoing audiences weren’t born. They wouldn’t even have been born for another 10 years.’
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He’s not directed a Terminator film since 1991’s first sequel.
