Terminator: Dark Fate had the odds stacked against it. Though the original and its sequel are cast-iron cinema classics, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys have all been various flavors of awful. Faced with that and some rather uninspiring trailers, audiences stayed away and it’s estimated that the film could end up losing Paramount and Skydance up to $130 million. Many assumed that that was the death knell for the Terminator franchise. But, much like the T-800, it looks like it could prove exceedingly difficult to kill off for good.
Sources close to WGTC say that a new Terminator TV show may be coming to one of the big streaming services, and it’s likely to be Hulu. The show will be produced by James Cameron, the plot will continue where Dark Fate left off and most of the surviving cast will return, including Linda Hamilton. Given the events of Dark Fate, we won’t be seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the aftermath of the movie could make for some neat drama. And seeing as this intel comes to us from the same sources who also told us Paramount is rebooting Transformers and Lethal Weapon 5 is now in the works with Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, both of which were confirmed this week, we’ve no reason to doubt it.
Of course, this won’t be the first time The Terminator has hit the small screen. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles aired for two seasons on Fox from April 2008 to April 2009. It provided a neat take on the franchise and managed to capture some of the big screen action on a limited budget (and it cast Garbage’s Shirley Manson as a Terminator). Sadly, the show was abruptly cancelled and ended without its story being fully resolved, but could provide a template for how an episodic Terminator story would work.
Whether these plans ever materialize into anything real, I’m glad that The Terminator hasn’t bitten the dust quite yet. Dark Fate was actually pretty good and definitely didn’t deserve to be a box office flop. If they can build off those solid foundations and get Linda Hamilton back on board, I’ll be there day one.
