Arnold Schwarzenegger has confirmed in an interview with ScreenDaily at the Cannes Film Festival that he’ll return to the Terminator franchise in Terminator 6 . The former Governor of California further revealed that he has already met up with James Cameron, the director of the original Terminator movie and its sequel, Terminator 2: Judgement Day , to discuss potential ideas for the project.
Cameron is, of course, known for films such as Titanic and Avatar , both of which broke records at the box office. He won’t be directing Terminator 6 , though.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Deadpool director Tim Miller was hired to bring the sixth Terminator film to life. This means that Cameron will most likely be involved in a producing role.
Schwarzenegger, however, seems confident that the next Terminator movie will be a success.
“It is moving forward. [Cameron] has some good ideas of how to continue with the franchise. I will be in the movie.”
The actor-turned-politician first appeared as the now legendary T-800 back in 1984 and has since secured his status as one of the most iconic robots in film history. Schwarzenegger also starred in Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. However, he did not feature in Terminator Salvation , the fourth installment of the franchise. Nonetheless, the T-800 did make an appearance in the movie, as the filmmakers utilized CGI to bring Schwarzenegger’s character to life on the big screen.
This wasn’t Schwarzenegger’s last appearance in a Terminator film, though.
The 69-year-old actor last appeared in a Terminator movie in 2015 alongside Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke. Terminator Genisys received mixed to negative reviews from film critics but was considered a mild success at the box office. After the lackluster reception of Terminator Genisys , Paramount Pictures reportedly put a halt to the franchise , according to /Film .
And even though the studio seemed to have given up hope on the Terminator film series, Schwarzenegger insisted that the franchise wasn’t necessarily finished – and even took a little swipe at President Donald Trump in the process.
“I don’t want to call it, like, fake news, like the president calls it, but I think people just write things – I have no idea why. Just because Paramount doesn’t want to pick up the Terminator franchise, you have 15 other studios willing to do it – that doesn’t mean the Terminator franchise is finished, right? It just means they are on their way to negotiate with another studio, but I can’t give you the details of that. They’ll announce that. But, yes, the Terminator franchise is never finished. And remember that after 2018, James Cameron is getting it back, and then it will continue on!”
Various sources have now suggested that the upcoming Terminator film may completely disregard all films in the franchise, with the exception of the first two movies. This would mean that Terminator 6 would serve as somewhat of a soft reboot to the franchise.
As Schwarzenegger indicated in his statement, the rights to the Terminator films will be returned to James Cameron in 2019. Since Cameron wasn’t involved with any of the movies following Terminator 2 , it would only make sense for the duo to reboot the franchise, especially considering how all of the subsequent films failed to emulate the critical success of their two predecessors.
It will also be interesting to see what kind of role Schwarzenegger will play in the film. At 69-years-old, the Austrian-born actor is no longer in the shape he was once renowned for. And if Cameron really decides to make Terminator 6 a direct sequel to T2 , it will be even more interesting to see where Schwarzenegger fits in in the film. Surely, he will have to reprise his role as the Terminator, though!
[Featured Image by Arthur Mola/AP Images]