Director Justin Lin denies original cast involvement for his Terminator installment

May 4th 2011, 6:08pm

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

So yeah, a new TERMINATOR movie is coming and will be helmed by Justin Lin (FAST FIVE).

In an interview with MTV, Lin spoke enthusiastically about the project and denies the rumor about the original cast returning, “No. I don’t know where that came from. Everything has just been between me and Arnold, you know? Just us going out and trying to find the right partners. I have certain elements, but it’s never been about, ‘Hey, let’s bring everybody back!’ I just don’t process that way. To me, thematically, there are certain things that I want to see in a ‘Terminator’ movie. A lot of that does draw back to creating this timeline that is an extension, closer tonally to the first and second movies. But to me, it’s not as mathematical as, ‘Hey, let’s get everybody back together and we’ll shoot the movie.'”

Lin says that his vision for the newest TERMINATOR installment is more James Cameron than Jonathan Mostow or McG. He also added that he doesn’t feel like he has to stick to any continuity from RISE OF THE MACHINES or SALVATION. Lin expanded on this, “I always feel like what’s great about the ‘Terminator’ franchise is that there’s time-travel and there are different timelines to play with. There are also a lot of gaps from what we love about all of the ‘Terminator’ movies, so there’s a lot of things we can do and play with. To me, all of that, I don’t really want to discuss it now. That’s part of the fun of developing. But the bigger questions for me are always the characters and the themes. You want to start there. But obviously, answering your question, [‘Terminator’] does have that capability, finding fresh ways of going back without destroying other [movies], because you can tell your own stories.”

It isn’t certain whether TERMINATOR 5 will be Lin’s next film or not, it just depends on what falls into place, “We’re talking to different studios, but it has to be the right situation. If it’s not right, then I could totally move on and I should move on. Probably in the next three or four weeks, I’ll have a very clear picture [of what my next movie will be].”