Summary
- The Terminator franchise has been overdone, according to Linda Hamilton.
- Multiple reboots and sequels have exhausted Sarah Connor's story.
- James Cameron's return may be the only hope for Terminator 7's success.
The Terminator franchise may be back with a Terminator 7 movie, but Linda Hamilton won't come with it—she's not convinced the franchise should be resurrected. Linda Hamilton stated in a new interview that "the story's been told," including that of Sarah Connor, the sci-fi heroine she has brought to life three times between 1984 and 2019.
The Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has similarly announced that he will be hanging up the hat (or pitch-black sunglasses), but he acknowledged that the franchise will inevitably keep running. Whether it functions is another matter.
James Cameron's script announcement of Terminator 7 came as a surprise after the failures of the Terminator sequels post-Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), including Terminator: Dark Fate's box office bomb in 2019.
The story by James Cameron helped earn the sixth film a 70% Rotten Tomatoes critic score and 82% audience score, but audiences didn't care enough to see yet another Terminator film after the preceding ones underwhelmed with convoluted storylines and lack of heart. There may not be enough to warrant another entry into the well-worn world of time-traveling cyborg assassins.
The Terminator Franchise Really Has Been "Done To Death"
As the 67-year-old star stated, the story has been "done to death." Considering the franchise's six films and its television series, and several planned Terminator projects canceled, the evidence is in her favor. Although Hamilton returned for Terminator:
Dark Fate, she chose not to appear in the three preceding films, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2003), and Terminator Genisys (2015). The story of a machine sent back in time to kill the savior of the world was told best in The Terminator (1984) and came to an emotional conclusion in Terminator 2 wasignored by studio attempts to recapture the magic and the money.
The Terminator franchise has since rebooted itself several times. Terminator 3 couldn't adequately follow Terminator 2, so the fourth, Terminator Salvation, came as both a sequel and soft reboot. Terminator Genisys rebooted the timeline again, not serving as a direct sequel to any film in the series. The two-season Terminator:
The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which premiered in 2008, continued after Terminator 2 as if the third film never happened. Lastly, there came Terminator: Dark Fate, which followed the TV series' lead and ignored the new sequels, picking up after the events of Terminator 2.
Sarah Connor's Story Is Very Much Over, So Linda Hamilton Shouldn't Return
There's not much story left to tell about Sarah.
Linda Hamilton played Sarah Connor in The Terminator, Terminator 2, and Terminator: Dark Fate. She had an uncredited voiceover role in Terminator Salvation.Sarah Connor was also played by actresses Emilia Clarke in Terminator Genisys and her Game of Thrones co-star Lena Headey in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Terminator 2 concluded her arc, only for Terminator Genisys to retcon her origins as an overwhelmed waitress and turn her into a fighter guarded by a Terminator (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the only actor to star in all six films).
With multiple films and two television seasons retelling her story, Sarah Connor's character arc is overdone and her story exhausted. Hamilton leaving the franchise wouldn't stop Cameron from rebooting with another actress portraying the heroine, but seeing as he has only been behind the films with Hamilton, he more than likely will create a new character to lead the story.
With any luck, they will be as compelling and emotionally investing as Sarah Connor, particularly in the 1984 and 1991 classics. Hamilton doesn't consider her an icon, instead calling her "a woman in hell" who could fight for her son but couldn't connect with him.
Terminator Should Be Finished, But Another Movie Is Inevitable
Studios will always try to push another potential hit.
The only hope for Terminator 7 to save the franchise is James Cameron. Cameron's gears are turning, which can only mean something good from the mind behind The Terminator, Titanic, Aliens, and Avatar. The Avatar franchise is seeing such success because Cameron is at the helm, directing and co-writing the films. The Terminator franchise was a well-oiled machine until Cameron stopped operating it. With its creator back, it can manage to start up a new apocalypse-preventing adventure with his planned relaunch.
It's good news that Cameron is writing the script—it's the first time since the original film and its beloved first sequel that the pen is in his hands. On the SmartLess podcast, he said that his take would be "much more about the AI side of it than bad robots gone crazy."
Although he has a new angle in mind, bad AI is not exactly a new concept itself, and the dynamic between Terminators and humans has always been at the heart of the story. Making a new classic on the AI side alone seems like a misstep for the iconic series.
Cameron's return to the franchise he left doesn't necessarily mean audiences still want to see another Terminator movie. He has come back, but Schwarzenegger and Hamilton have moved on, and Cameron himself stated Terminator:
Dark Fate failed in many ways—including setting up exciting new characters for audiences to follow after the iconic duo's exit. The franchise may not survive a hard reboot with Terminator 7. In the words of Kyle Reese and John Connor, "The future is not set," but it remains to be seen if Cameron can reset the future of the Terminator series.
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