James Cameron has talked about the future of the Terminator movie franchise. Y'know, the guy who created the whole thing back in the 1980s? Perhaps we should listen.
He thinks its fortunes rely on basically jettisoning almost everything we thought was essential in the 1980s and 1990s.
In a chunky retrospective interview with Empire magazine — and you’ll have to actually buy the mag to read the full thing (the November 2024 issue for those interested) — Cameron says the future of Terminator is absolutely not Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“This is the moment when you jettison everything that is specific to the last 40 years of Terminator, but you live by those principles,” Cameron told Empire.
“You get too inside it, and then you lose a new audience because the new audience care much less about that stuff than you think they do.”
The tricky part, of course, is the highlights of the series, across film and TV, do all feature cast members or characters from the original two movies.
There was, of course, those two first incredible Terminator films. And while the Sarah Connor Chronicles does not star Linda Hamilton, it’s sure as hell is about Sarah Connor.
So where do we go from here? One recent clue is Terminator Zero, an anime series that has received some of the best Terminator-related reviews we’ve seen since the 1990s.
However, it was also accused of rehashing the classic Terminator storyline in its first season. And, as yet, we’re not sure if it will be greenlit for another to go somewhere else entirely.
Cameron has something to say on the matter here too, about what the root of Terminator is.
“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?”
Cameron has hinted in previous recent interviews he’s working on some form of Terminator project, after not having direct involvement in Terminator Zero.
Do we have any details? Zero. But he does say “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.”
It feels like we may not be too far off more concrete Terminator news emerging. Don’t go expecting to hear Cameron’s at the directorial helm of a new movie, though. The poor man still has three Avatar movies ahead of him.
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