If The Terminator franchise has a future, Arnold Schwarzenegger won’t be a part of it.
At least, that’s according to a new report from NY Daily News claiming that the Austrian Oak is all but set to walk away from the iconic sci-fi series after 30-odd years and four feature films – Schwarzenegger actually turned down a role in Salvation, though his T-800 did appear toward the end of McG’s botched revival. In hindsight, the screen icon candidly admitted to dodging a bullet by passing up Terminator Salvation, but the fact that 2015’s Terminator Genisys, another dud that was originally designed to kick-start a new trilogy of movies, underwhelmed across the board seemingly signals the end of Schwarzenegger’s tenure in the series.
Citing a source close to the studio, NY Daily News’ report writes that,
“It is over for The Terminator and Arnold. The studio has taken the sequel off the production slate completely, meaning there is no pre-production or any plans for another sequel. The talent had been offered long-term deals, but this is not happening.
“The Genisys movie was seen as a way of reviving (the franchise), but the critics were not happy and somehow the studio bosses fell out of love with making more, even though they made huge profits.”
That hard reset also means the likes of Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney won’t be reprising their respective roles anytime soon. But it’s not all doom and gloom for The Terminator, as Deadpool director Tim Miller has reportedly struck up a collaboration with James Cameron, one of the founding fathers of the franchise opposite Gale Anne Hurd, and is drafting up plans for a new reboot. It’s early, early days on that one, but we understand the project has found a home at Skydance.
Before circling back to The Terminator, Cameron will surely want to wrap up work on his wildly ambitious Avatar universe. Last we reported, Avatar 2 had slipped from its tentative December 2018 release slot – one that was quickly filled by James Wan’s solo Aquaman movie – so it remains to be seen whether the illustrious filmmaker can find room on his stacked slate for another crack at Skynet.