With certain rights to the iconicTerminator franchisereverting back toTerminatorandTerminator 2: Judgment Daycreator/directorJames Cameronin 2019, the filmmaker is prepping his return to the series. Cameron is planning to ‘Godfather’ a ‘reboot and conclusion’ of the first two movies, withDeadpooldirectorTim Millerin early talks to direct.David Ellison, who bought the franchise rights from his sisterMegan Ellisonin 2013, is funding an “exploratory effort” that brings some of the top sci-fi authors together to “find the movie creatively.”
Deadlinebroke the news, but even the site concedes that it’s unclear what direction the story will go in. After directing 1984’sThe Terminatorand its blockbuster 1991 sequelTerminator 2: Judgment Day,James Cameronbacked away from the franchise, and he wasn’t involved in 2003’sTerminator 3: Rise Against the Machines, the 2008 TV seriesTerminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 2009’sTerminator Salvationor last year’sTerminator Genisys. He did, however, appear in a few TV spots, praising that movie, although it didn’t seem to help, since it was a critical failure while underperforming at the box office.
It was always known thatJames Cameronwould retain control of the franchise in 2019, 35 years after the originalTerminatormovie was released, which is why Paramount set up release dates forTerminator Genisys 2(August 02, 2025) andTerminator Genisys 3(August 11, 2025) beforeTerminator Genisyswas even released. Oddly enough, exactly one year ago today, Paramount Pictures yanked therelease dateforTerminator Genisys 2. In March,Arnold Schwarzeneggerinsisted that this sequel was still happening, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. It remains to be seen ifArnold Schwarzenggerwill return as the T-800 for this untitled project.
Even thoughJames Cameronisn’t directing, his creative involvement in this new, and currently untitledTerminatormovie, is quite exciting for die-hard fans of the franchise. Deadline even speculates that this new project could either reboot the entireTerminator franchise, orsimply pick up from whereTerminator 2: Judgment Dayleft off, which would most likely erase everything that came after it from the franchise timeline, much like howBryan Singerwiped out the events from 2006’sX-Men: The Last Standby creating a new timeline in the 2014 hitX-Men: Days of Future Past. Which is kind of what Terminator: Genysis attempted to do with its time travel story.
This report goes onto say thatJames Camerononce mentioned his plans to buy back theTerminatorrights to producersMario KassarandAndy Vajna, from their bankrupt company Carloco. The producers beat the director to the punch, buying the rights themselves and bringing Carloco back as C2 Pictures. They went on to producerTerminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which earned $150 million domestic and $433 million worldwide, from a massive $200 million budget. C2 folded in 2008, with Halcyon controlling the rights until they were sold to Pacificor in 2010, for a whopping $29.5 million. ProducerMegan Ellisonbought the rights for $20 million just a year later, before she sold them to her brotherDavid Ellisonin 2013.
After breaking box office records with the R-ratedDeadpool,Tim Millerbacked away from the sequelDeadpool 2, reportedly due to creative differences with star/executive producerRyan Reynolds. The filmmaker has also signed on to develop and executive produce an adaptation of theSonic the Hedgehogvideo game, but he will not be directing, with his Blur Studios partnerJeff Fowlermaking his directorial debut withSonic the Hedgehog. Hopefully we’ll hear something official fromJames CameronandTim Millerabout the development of this newTerminatormovie.
