James Cameron Hopes That Terminator: Dark Fate Starts A New Trilogy

Much like its title character, the Terminator franchise can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until… they run out of ideas for reboots, probably.

Somebody in Hollywood seems intent on churning out Terminator movies until the end of time despite the fact that the last great entry in the franchise came all the way back in 1991, with upcoming sixth installment Terminator: Dark Fate marking the third reboot of the series in just ten years. However, Dark Fate has an advantage that predecessors Rise of the Machines, Salvation and Genisys didn’t: the long-awaited return of James Cameron.

Cameron’s involvement as producer has been one of the key selling points of the marketing, along with seeing Linda Hamilton reprise her iconic role as Sarah Connor for the first time in almost three decades. The Academy Award-winning director and former undisputed king of the box office was also heavily involved in developing the story of Dark Fate, and revealed in a recent interview that he views the latest reboot as the first part of a trilogy, with the narrative for any potential sequels already mapped out.

Speaking with Deadline, here’s what he had to say:

“We spent several weeks breaking the story and figuring out what type of story we wanted to tell, so we would have something to pitch Linda Hamilton. We rolled up our sleeves and started to break out the story and when we got a handle on something we looked at it as a three-film arc, so there is a greater story there to be told. If we get fortunate enough to make some money with Dark Fate, we know exactly where we can go with the subsequent films.”

If it feels like you’ve heard this all before, it’s because you have. The critically-panned Genisys was also announced to be the first part of a new Terminator trilogy, with release dates already set for sequels before the movie’s critical and commercial under-performance saw those plans scrapped. For a franchise with a long history of inferior sequels and reboots, it would be a much better idea to focus on making Terminator: Dark Fate stand on its own merits as a worthy sequel to Judgement Day before planning too far ahead.