Fans were hoping that the long-awaited return of James Cameron would arrest the steady decline of the Terminator franchise, which wasn’t an unreasonable expectation when his first two installments are genuine classics. Unfortunately, though, even a talent of his reputation couldn’t save Dark Fate, despite the filmmaker acting as a hands-on producer and developing the story, although his involvement ultimately led to conflict with director Tim Miller.
Cameron never actually visited the set in person, but he clearly held a huge amount of sway over the project right through to the editing process. The Titanic director has admitted in the past that one of the biggest regrets of his career is selling the rights to the property for the princely sum of $1 back before the first movie was released, and the series would have no doubt turned out completely differently if he hadn’t.
After Dark Fate marked the third underwhelming reboot for Terminator in a decade, rights holders Skydance Media have been forced back to the drawing board once again to try and resuscitate the failing brand. Where it’ll go from here remains to be seen, but insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that Cameron wants full creative control over the entire franchise, giving him complete oversight over future projects for what would be the very first time.
As things stand, the 66 year-old has no say over the property whatsoever, having only been involved in Dark Fate as a contracted creative talent. However, with Skydance clearly struggling for ways to keep Terminator relevant in the eyes of audiences, there are certainly worse ideas out there, although Cameron is apparently happy to spend the remainder of his career in the world of Pandora given the glacial pace that the multiple Avatar sequels have been moving at for the last dozen years.
