Linda Hamilton has a complicated history with the Terminator franchise. On the one hand, the actress is at the center of the first two films in the series, James Cameron's own The Terminator and T2: Judgement Day. In those films, her portrayal of Sarah Connor was cemented into the cultural lexicon in profound ways. She is an iconic actress who delivered incendiary and unforgettable work in those films. But on the other hand, she’s also had a distinctly waxing-and-waning relationship with the franchise ever since the second film’s release in 1991.
Now, in a recent interview with JustWatch (via Bloody Disgusting), Hamilton has clarified that regardless of what happens moving forward, she has no intentions of returning to the Terminator franchise. Despite the fact that James Cameron is apparently hard at work on a new installment in the series, when asked about it, Hamilton clarified she knew nothing of it and wanted to know even less.
In reference to Cameron working on a new Terminator film, she said “He did say another? He said that? I’m out… I don’t know, the last one didn’t perform well financially, so I’m very surprised to hear there’s going to be another one. Thanks for the news.”
Immediately following the release of T2: Judgement Day, Hamilton and Cameron became involved romantically. They would go on to get married in 1997, with talks of a potential third Terminator film (despite the second film’s distinctly definitive ending) continuing to surround them. However, things would ultimately fall by the wayside as the pair divorced in 1999, and when a third Terminator film was eventually made in 2003 (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), it was without either of them.
A few years later, Hamilton did return to the franchise in some capacity, as she had a voice-only minor role in 2009’s Terminator Salvation, providing a voice of guidance for her son John from beyond the grave via her recorded tapes. The next film was an attempted reboot of sorts, 2015’s Terminator Genisys, which brought Arnold Schwarzenegger back in a leading role but swapped out the rest of the cast for younger performers, with Sarah Connor now being played by Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke. However, that film floundered at the box office, and resulted in the franchise attempting to course-correct once more, this time with the James Cameron-produced Terminator: Dark Fate in 2019, which brought Arnold back again and also featured Hamilton in a starring role as Sarah Connor once more.
A successful Terminator revival needs new ideas and characters
Dark Fate was intended to kick-start a new era of the Terminator franchise, but failed to recoup its budget at the box office, and was thus abandoned. For those keeping track at home, this made it the fourth (!?!) film since 1991 to attempt to claim the title of being the ‘worthy follow-up’ to T2: Judgement Day only to fall flat on its face. Now, with the fate of further Avatar sequels remaining uncertain and with AI becoming such a pertinent real-world concern, James Cameron has been hard-at work constructing a whole new Terminator story, being more directly involved in the creative process than he has since 1991.
However, for anyone holding out hope that Cameron’s new film might feature Hamilton returning yet again, that clearly isn’t happening. For a franchise whose whole modus operandi is about the future and the inescapable nature of time, Terminator has been stuck in the past for far too long. If a new Terminator film is going to succeed, it cannot merely coast on the fumes of prior successes; it has to resonate palpably with modern audiences.
Given the real anxieties surround AI-usage right now in the world, and James Cameron’s consistently odds-defying track record over the years, I wouldn’t put it past him to deliver one last great Terminator movie. But it seems like even Big Jim is aware that if its going to work, he can’t just phone in some favors from the old cast; it has to embrace the new.
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