While James Cameron is busy putting together ‘Avatar 4’ and developing his long-gestating WWII drama “Ghosts of Hiroshima,” what’s been barely mentioned is that he’s also quietly working on a new Terminator project.
However, as the filmmaker revealed in a recent interview with CNN (via The Playlist),the current real-world climate, marked by rising fears over artificial intelligence’s military use, is making it challenging to craft an entertaining sci-fi narrative set in the Terminator universe.
I’m at a point right now where I have a hard time writing science fiction. I’m tasked with writing a new Terminator story. I’ve been unable to get started on that very far because I don’t know what to say that won’t be overtaken by real events. We are living in a science fiction age right now.
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 had 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 he went any further with it.
Cameron hasn’t directed a ‘Terminator’ movie since “Terminator: Judgement 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 comes back in the director’s chair, but I’m highly skeptical this new movie will ever get made. Cameron seems to have higher priorities nowadays and getting himself involved in this struggling franchise is probably the last thing he wants to be doing.