'The Terminator' Producer Isn't Prepared To Admit Defeat Just Yet
Rarely has "I'll be back" sounded more like a threat.
Everyone can agree that the first two Terminator movies are absolute classics, but the flip side of the coin is that those two movies have also spawned an entire franchise of disappointing and continuity-defying sequels. The latter is less of an issue, admittedly, but we still have to reckon with the former. The latest attempt, Terminator: Dark Fate, more or less does what's asked of it in terms of soft-rebooting the franchise, but audiences were less than enthused.
Nevertheless, that doesn't seem to be a deal-breaker when it comes to the possibility of producing more Terminator movies.
Gale Anne Hurd is one of the most prolific producers in the business right now, having worked with then-husband James Cameron to write The Terminator before going on to produce several more Terminator movies, Aliens, The Abyss, The Walking Dead, and more. After decades of navigating the highs and lows of the industry, nothing fazes her — not even the less-than-stellar prospects of the Terminator franchise.
As part of a long conversation with Variety (via Joblo), Hurd touches upon the potential of making yet another Terminator sequel:
"Honestly, I have no idea. I wasn't involved in the last one. To give you some perspective, I used to have a scuba diving practice in Micronesia, and we found that they even screened 'The Terminator,' albeit a bootleg video version, on one of the most remote islands in the world. The awareness is already built in, and I do think it's a perennial with the right story with the right cast and the right direction. I think there could still be a potential future there."
Recapturing the Magic
She's certainly not wrong when it comes to awareness of the original movie and its even bigger sequel. In fact, that actually might be the reason that the franchise has found itself at such a creative dead end in the first place. Because the first two movies were so successful, the temptation to recreate that lightning in a bottle with sequels down the line has been irresistible. Think of it this way: there have been no less than three separate attempts to kickstart an entirely new pre-planned trilogy of Terminator movies, and none of them have been successful.
At the end of the day, you would think that audiences would have the final word on the future of the franchise. Yet somehow, another Terminator movie keeps getting greenlit, builds up hype in a way that only Terminator movies can, and subsequently disappoints among critics, at the box office, or both. I don't know if or when this cycle could begin again (man, it's almost like we're trapped in a time loop or something), but I'm morbidly curious to see just how long we can keep these movies going.