Ever since Paramount Pictures and Skydance pulled together to announce a new rendition of The Terminator, subsequently placing erstwhile Deadpool director Tim Miller in the driving seat, the question on everyone’s lips has been whether Arnold Schwarzenegger will be involved.
The Austrian Oak appeared to distance himself from the franchise following the woeful Genisys (and can you really blame him?), even going so far as to suggest that his days waging war against Skynet were long behind him. That was back in March, when NY Daily News reported that The Terminator and Schwarzenegger had effectively gone their separate ways after Paramount pulled the plug on its planned Genisys trilogy.
Four weeks later and Schwarzenegger’s involvement looked to be back on the cards, after the Hollywood veteran uttered that signature catchphrase to confirm that, yes, his towering android will have a role to play in The Terminator. The sequel, which is reportedly siding with a minimalist title over Terminator 6, is expected to start shooting in the spring, with Arnie on board.
Here’s what the actor told The Playlist: “In March next year, I am shooting Terminator 6, James Cameron and David Ellison are back on board and then comes a Conan.”
Deadline offered up another scrap of intel, claiming that Cameron and David Ellison have formed “a writers room with several scribes figuring out where to take the Skynet saga that Cameron hatched in 1984.”
Should all of the pieces fall into place, Tim Miller’s reboot will be the first in a three-part reinvention of The Terminator franchise, one that will purportedly dip its toe into the morally grey realm of “predator drones and surveillance and big data and emergent AI (artificial intelligence).” At least, that’s according to James Cameron, who will no doubt be busy launching his 24 Avatar sequels over the next five-to-seven years.
We jest, of course; Avatar 2 kicks things off in December of 2020 before another three sequels come tumbling off Fox’s production line. As for The Terminator, Skydance’s fabled reboot is beginning to take shape, but does the world really need another trilogy involving humanity’s eternal struggle against Skynet? We’ll leave that one to you.