If anything, the first two Terminator movies have remained among the greatest, most memorable science fiction films to grace the big screen in the past thirty or so years. Not only did they launch the respective careers of director James Cameron and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger into the stratosphere, but they also happen to be highly quotable, serving as inspiration for many Austrian Death Machine songs.
In the time since, three separate sequels have seen the light of day, though all proved to be highly divisive among moviegoers, if not downright reviled. Personally, I didn’t hate any film in the series and felt that Rise of the Machines and Salvation seemed like the natural progression of the overall story. Still, one can’t overlook the fact that the series’ timeline had become overly convoluted, with both Salvation and Genesys having intended on kicking off trilogies, only to fail at the box office and force the studio to reevaluate the situation.
Thus, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the next outing will ignore all but the first two movies. What’s more is that Schwarzenegger himself seems supportive of this approach, as he had the following to say in a recent discussion with Business Insider:
“I think Cameron and Miller came up with a concept where they can continue on with the T-800 but make a whole new movie. 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.”
In addition to that, Arnie spoke on what he thinks makes the T-800 so appealing:
“I think the T-800 model is a really interesting character. 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.”
Terminator 6 is expected to begin shooting early next year, with a July 26, 2019 theatrical release in mind.