James Cameron is responsible for launching billion-dollar franchises like Avatar and Aliens, but he seems to be having a problem with bringing back Terminator. Terminator: Dark Fate had bombed at the box office, and Cameron thinks he knows why.
Talking to the SmartLess podcast (via IGN), Cameron shares:
“The movie could have survived having Linda [Hamilton] in it… I think it could have survived having Arnold [Scwarzenegger] in it, but when you put Linda and Arnold in it and then, you know, she’s 60-something, he’s 70-something, all of a sudden it wasn’t your Terminator movie, it wasn’t even your dad’s Terminator movie, it was your granddad’s Terminator movie.”
Personally, I think there are several other reasons why the film failed, but I do agree with Cameron that bringing back Sarah Connor and another T-800 may have muddled the reception. Not to mention, they kind of ruined the entire ending of Terminator 2 by having John Connor die by the hand of a terminator anyway.
Though the film wasn’t perfect, I did think there were a lot of interesting elements in it, including a terminator that could split in two. Too bad a lot of audiences didn’t agree.
We don’t know what the future holds for the Terminator franchise, but Cameron did say that he is currently in ‘discussion’ about what to do with it. Though a lot of fans think Cameron should just helm it himself, I do think it’s a franchise that’s behind him—especially after Avatar: The Way of Water which seems to have a message close to Cameron’s heart.
