All good things must come to an end, and that includes Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s stint as the iconic Terminator. James Cameron has confirmed that the veteran actor won’t return to the next entry in the long-running franchise, which he’s looking to work on after the Avatar: Fire and Ash momentum slows down.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the filmmaker shared that a new Terminator film is next on the agenda, with plans to introduce a new generation of characters rather than banking on nostalgia.
“Once the dust clears on Avatar in a couple of months, I’m going to really plunge into that,” he said. “There are a lot of narrative problems to solve. The biggest is how do I stay enough ahead of what’s really happening to make it science fiction?”
Added the accomplished director, “I can safely say [Schwarzenegger] won’t be [in it]. It’s time for a new generation of characters. I insisted Arnold had to be involved in Terminator: Dark Fate, and it was a great finish to him playing the T-800. There needs to be a broader interpretation of Terminator and the idea of a time war and super intelligence. I want to do new stuff that people aren’t imagining.”
It’s a logical course of action, considering how fresh faces have revived fellow 80s and 90s sci-fi properties such as Alien and Predator on the big screen, with Cailee Spaeny and Elle Fanning taking the lead in Alien: Romulus and Predator: Badlands, respectively. As for Terminator, Schwarzenegger is the only cast member to have appeared in all six films, from the 1984 original to 2019’s Dark Fate, although his presence in Terminator Salvation took the form of CGI rendering.
Naturally, Cameron is keeping ideas for the new Terminator movie close to his chest, but he previously admitted to hitting a snag with writer’s block. Even so, he remains adamant about starting the franchise anew, and in 2022, expressed a desire to explore “more about the AI side of it than bad robots gone crazy”.
For now, all eyes will be on Avatar: Fire and Ash, which marks the third and latest instalment in the juggernaut franchise. It has grossed more than US$5.2 billion worldwide, with Avatar 4 and 5 slated for release in 2029 and 2031, respectively.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
