Well, this was unexpected. It appears Skynet may have once again altered the timeline to prevent the death of the Terminator franchise.
With a TV series that ended prematurely, and the two most recent sequels (Salvation and Genisys) not really catching fire with audiences, there was probably only one thing that could regenerate interest in the property, and now it’s happening: James Cameron is in early talks to return to the franchise as soon as the rights revert to him in 2019, according to Mike Fleming Jr. at Deadline. And his top contender to direct? Deadpool‘s Tim Miller who, not unlike Cameron himself back in the day, clearly knows how to make an R-rated action hit on a limited budget and tell a good story about a nigh-indestructible protagonist and a CG metal man. (Nerdist has reached out for independent confirmation, but had not received comment as of this writing.)
The original plan with Genisys was to kickstart a new trilogy that could have been completed before 2019, and would have involved multiple timelines, revealing Matt Smith to be an alternate-universe Skynet and possibly even incorporating the contradictory elements of The Sarah Connor Chronicles into the movie canon. This idea died once the first film performed below expectations. Fleming implies twice in his report that the new film would be a conclusion to the war between man and machine; though Cameron has said many times that Terminator 2 is the conclusion in his mind, he also removed from it a future-set ending that would have left no doubt, and no room for sequels.
Cameron’s role is described as “godfather,” a similar title to the one Christopher Nolan had on Man of Steel, where he added real-world scope to Zack Snyder’s more stylized instincts. It isn’t hard to see how Cameron and Miller could have a similar dynamic.
Are you interested in a new Terminator film if Cameron is involved? Do you suspect a stealth plan to set up a Terminator v Avatar shared cinematic universe? And most importantly, should Schwarzenegger BE BACK? Let us know your thoughts below.
Images: TriStar, 20th Century Fox
