The more that Arnold Schwarzenegger, producer James Cameron and incoming director Tim Miller talk about the plans for their new Terminator movie, the more it feels like all involved backing away so quickly from anything other than the first two films in the franchise, you could hear a beeping sound. Schwarzenegger, out promoting Killing Gunther, elaborated more on their ideas to Business Insider.
"I think James Cameron and Tim Miller came up with a concept where they can continue on with the T-800 but make a whole new movie," he says. "What they are doing now with this one is basically to just take a few very basic characters, like Linda Hamilton’s character and my character, and dismiss everything else. Just move away from all these rules of the timeline and other characters." Which means that the likes of Rise Of The Machines and particularly Terminator Genisys are going bye bye, which will likely please a lot of people, including some who were in those films.
Quite what the plans are, no one is saying yet, but Schwarzenegger has talked up the focus. "I think the T-800 model is a really interesting character," he elaborates. "He’s a machine, can be destructive, can do things human beings can’t do, but at the same time when newer technology comes along the character suddenly is vulnerable and that makes him even more interesting." So it'll lean into the age issues...
The new Terminator, whatever it ends up being called, is taking aim at a 2019 release.