James Cameron shared he’s not only struggling to write a script for a new Terminator movie, but explained why.
Back in August 2024, Cameron confirmed he was working on a new Terminator film following the failure of Terminator: Dark Fate, which was supposed to spawn a whole new trilogy.
He told The Hollywood Reporter, “I’m working on my own Terminator stuff right now. It’s got nothing to do with [Netflix’s Terminator Zero].”
When pressed on what he was working on with Terminator, he said, “It’s totally classified. I don’t want to have to send out a potentially dangerous robotic agent if you were to talk about it, even retroactively.”
He would go on to provide more details to Empire in November 2024:
There’s certain things that are of the fabric of Terminator that have nothing to do with the Linda Hamilton of it all, or the Arnold of it. You’ve got powerless main characters, essentially, fighting for their lives, who get no support from existing power structures, and have to circumvent them but somehow maintain a moral compass. And then you throw A.I. into the mix. Those principles are sound principles for storytelling today, right? So I have no doubt that subsequent Terminator films will not only be possible, but they’ll kick ass. But this is the moment where you jettison all the specific iconography. If this is a spoiler, or reveal, or whatever, that’s fine. This is the moment when you jettison everything that is specific to the last forty years of Terminator, but you live by those principles.
And he indicated this was part of what he was working on, “It’s more than a plan. That’s what we’re doing. That’s all I’ll say for right now.”
However, in a recent interview with CNN, he admitted he’s struggling with the film script, “I've been unable to get [very far] on that.”
As for the reason why, “I don't know what to say that won't be overtaken by real events. We are living in a science fiction age right now."
It's all right there in his first statement, these are not sound principles for storytelling.
You’ve got powerless main characters, essentially, fighting for their lives, who get no support from existing power structures, and have to circumvent them but somehow maintain a moral compass. And then you throw A.I. into the mix. Those principles are sound principles for storytelling today, right?
No one is asking for more Terminator movies. Work on something new, or just relax and enjoy your golden years.