The epitome of a franchise whose time has come and gone, Terminator hasn’t had a truly successful film since 1992’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. That’s not without trying, as recent films such as Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate failed at the box office and with fans. Nobody has a tighter connection to these movies than Arnold Schwarzenegger, and for him it’s time to say “Hasta La Vista, Baby” once and for all.
Speaking with THR about his upcoming Netflix series, FUBAR, the conversation inevitably switched gears to Terminator. And Arnold did not mince words. He admits the failings of the latest movies, and says his time with the franchise is over, even if there are more movies to come.
“The franchise is not done. I’m done,” Schwarzenegger said. “I got the message loud and clear that the world wants to move on with a different theme when it comes to ‘The Terminator.’ Someone has to come up with a great idea. ‘The Terminator’ was largely responsible for my success, so I always would look at it very fondly. The first three movies were great. Number four [‘Salvation’] I was not in because I was governor. Then five [‘Genisys’] and six [‘Dark Fate’] didn’t close the deal as far as I’m concerned. We knew that ahead of time because they were just not well written.”
Personally, I think Terminator: Dark Fate has a lot more good than bad going for it, but Arnold isn’t completely wrong here. It doesn’t seem to matter who the filmmaker is, or even if James Cameron is involved, audiences have not been hooked into a reason to care about Terminator for a long time. It’s clear that Arnold isn’t enough of a draw, so someone is going to need to figure something else out. Under normal circumstances I would say it might be smart to try a television series reboot, but they’ve already done that with The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
What’s next? Maybe they should enlist Skynet to write the next Terminator movie.
