James Cameron aims to reinvent the Terminator franchise with a trilogy

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Earlier this year we heard that James Cameron was planning to get back into the TERMINATOR game when some of the franchise rights revert to him in 2019, producing a new installment with David Ellison of Skydance Media and getting someone else, possibly DEADPOOL's Tim Miller, to direct the film. Speaking with News.com of Australia, Cameron confirmed most of that report (with no mention of Miller) and revealed that his plans for the franchise are even bigger than just one film.

Cameron only wrote and directed the first two TERMINATOR films and wasn't involved with the sequels that followed, but now he intends to add three more TERMINATORS to his résumé as a producer.

Admitting that he doesn't "have a lot of respect" for the films that followed his TERMINATORs, Cameron asks, 

…has the franchise run its course or can it be freshened up? Can it still have relevance now where so much of our world is catching up to what was science fiction in the first two films. We live in a world of predator drones and surveillance and big data and emergent AI.

So I am in discussions with David Ellison, who is the current rights holder globally for the Terminator franchise and the rights in the US market revert to me under US copyright law in a year and a half so he and I are talking about what we can do. Right now we are leaning toward doing a three-film arc and reinventing it."

Cameron notes that this project isn't at a point where it can be officially announced because there are still some issues to work through – or hurdles to clear – before the deal is closed. It's interesting to hear that there's a "three-film arc" in the works, but it's not so surprising that Cameron is thinking big these days. After all, he's about to start filming four AVATAR sequels back-to-back.

We'll keep you updated on Cameron's return to the TERMINATOR franchise as we learn more and as the day he regains the rights draws closer.