James Cameron Says He Plans Next ‘Terminator’ Movie After ‘Avatar 3,’ Won’t Include Arnold Schwarzenegger

While James Cameron is ready to finally release “Avatar: Fire and Ash” theatrically this Friday, he’s now telling THR that once the dust settles on that one, he’ll be taking a deep dive into completing his script for the next Terminator movie.

Cameron says he is indeed “working” on a new Terminator movie — but it won’t feature the franchise’s signature star, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I can safely say he won’t be [in it],” Cameron told THR, adding, “It’s time for a new generation of characters. I insisted Arnold had to be involved in [2019’s] Terminator: Dark Fate, and it was a great finish to him playing the T-800. There needs to be a broader interpretation of Terminator and the idea of a time war and super intelligence. I want to do new stuff that people aren’t imagining.”

Cameron told THR that “once the dust clears on Avatar in a couple of months, I’m going to really plunge into that” — that being Terminator. He added that the biggest “narrative problem” he needs to solve is, “How do I stay enough ahead of what’s really happening to make it science fiction?” I would add: with the world the way it already is, how would anyone even notice if it were taken over by evil computers?

Details remain scarce about this new Terminator project. It’s unclear whether it will serve as a direct follow-up to ‘Dark Fate,’ a reboot, or something entirely different. There has been talk that Cameron aims to relaunch the franchise in a fresh direction, but nothing official has been confirmed.

Back in 2022, Cameron mentioned that he was in “discussions” to direct the next Terminator movie, and that it would be “more about the AI side of it.” A year later, Cameron confirmed that he was in the middle of writing the movie and that he wanted to see how AI developed before going any further with it.

Cameron hasn’t directed a Terminator movie since “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” although he had major creative involvement in “Terminator: Dark Fate,” which Tim Miller helmed. The film received bad reviews and reportedly lost $120 million.

Cameron has spoken about his regrets in casting Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger in ‘Dark Fate.’ He also, infamously, had creative clashes with Miller during production and post-production on the film.

The only way to inject some much-needed energy into this tired old franchise is if Cameron returns to the director’s chair, but I’m highly skeptical this new movie will ever get made. Cameron seems to have higher priorities these days, and getting himself involved in this struggling franchise is probably the last thing he wants to be doing.