Listen, and understand. The Terminator franchise is out there. Skydance Media, who own the rights, can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until they get a box office hit.
In the space of ten years, three new attempts were made at relaunching the classic sci-fi series, and each time we were told that this would be the movie that fans had been waiting for, and it would mark the first installment of a brand new trilogy that would see the Terminator brand come roaring back to the forefront of the public consciousness. As the old saying goes, though, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. There’s no third part, but if there was, it would probably say, fool us three times and just give up on the franchise already.
It looked like the poor box office performance of Dark Fate had hammered the final nail into the cybernetic coffin, but we’ve heard from our sources this week – the same ones that told us Ben Affleck would be returning as Batman in The Flash long before it was confirmed – that yet another Terminator reboot is in the works, with some big name talent reportedly being eyed.
According to our intel, discussions are already happening behind the scenes at Paramount about trying to resurrect the flagging franchise after three decades of disappointment, with John Cena and Margot Robbie being bandied about as potential candidates to bring some fresh blood to the Terminator series. It’s unclear what form this project would take, but given that the property is as good as dead on the big screen at this stage, perhaps a potential premium TV show that moves away from the established mythology would be a safe bet, as it could provide a new spin on the material and wring some more life out of the franchise if handled correctly.
Then again, insider Daniel Richtman claimed just the other week that James Cameron was looking to do another feature film, so maybe that’s the project that Robbie and Cena are being eyed for? In any case, it seems the studio isn’t giving up yet and it’ll be interesting to see which direction they head in next.
