Well, he said he’d be back, but it’s been a threat which has wrought increasingly diminishing returns over the years. Conventional wisdom has it that the last good Terminator film was the second one, released all the way back in 1992. Since then there’s been a further three instalments of the franchise which weren’t…good. Can sixth time be the charm for The Terminator? Let’s look at a single still image and decide!
This one might have a better chance of succeeding which, admittedly, isn’t saying much. For the as-yet-untitled Terminator 6 (is it a sequel, is it a reboot, are those concepts immaterial in a series built upon paradox-embracing concepts of time travel?), series progenitor James Cameron is back on board, and Linda Hamilton will reprise her role as robot-killer Sarah Connor (after being replaced by the woefully miscast in 2015’s Terminator Genisys).
Our first look at the film, pictured above, stands Hamilton’s Connor alongside Mackenzie Davis, of Halt and Catch Fire and Black Mirror fame, and telenovela star Natalia Reyes in her first Hollywood role. From the scars on her body, Davis is presumably going to be playing some variation on the titular killer robot, but don’t despair: Arnold Schwarzenegger will also be reprising his role as the increasingly craggy-looking T-800.
Reportedly the film will indulge in the oh-so-trendy conceit of ignoring all the sequels past T2 (as most of us do), dismissing them as “alternate timelines,” which again, I guess is easy when time travel and branching timelines is baked into your franchise’s whole conceit. Tim Miller, who directed the first Deadpool and is somehow involved in that live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie, is behind the camera this time around.
Joining Hamilton, Arnie and the newbies are 90210‘s Diego Boneta, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. cast member Gabriel Luna, and — somewhat creepily — Edward Furlong’s 1991 facial likeness CGI’d over another young actors face. Cameron came up with the film’s story along with producers David Ellison and Dana Goldberg, with the actual screenplay credited to (deep breath) Billy Ray, David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, Josh Friedman and Charles Eglee.
Are you excited by the idea of yet another Terminator movie? Does the series deserve another roll of the dice, or should the sorry old hunk of junk be decommissioned? Sound off in the comments below and you could be in with a chance of winning my clothes, my boots, and my motorcycle [ED: not a real competition]!
The untitled, in-production sequel to James Cameron’s original Terminator films will open in UK cinemas November 2019.