James Cameron Wants To 'Jettison' Terminator's Backstory

By Andrew Sanford | Film | September 23, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Film | September 23, 2024 |

Reboots are all the rage in Hollywood. Sequels continue to dominate, extending the adventures of our favorite characters (for better or worse). Adaptations are a force in film and have been since the medium’s inception. For original ideas, you need to explore independent theaters (not a bad thing) and social media (your mileage may vary) to discover emerging filmmakers before they get pulled into the reboot and sequel cycle. Reboots offer executives a bit of everything.

With a reboot, you can start fresh in multiple ways. While staying in familiar territory, you can introduce new characters and storylines or explore an established world from a different perspective—both literally and figuratively. Unfortunately, most reboots end up rehashing what came before. At worst, they can feel like the same movie repackaged. If James Cameron has his way, he plans to avoid these pitfalls soon.

Cameron is no stranger to sequels, reboots, or adaptations. Two of the first three films he directed were sequels—one to an incredibly successful film that has since become iconic, and the other… less so. In between, he co-wrote and directed The Terminator, launching a massive franchise. Although other creators have taken over since, Cameron has remained involved in some capacity. Now, he wants to shake things up.

The director recently spoke with Empire and teased the next film in the Terminator franchise. As Cameron mentioned in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he’s “working on [his] own Terminator stuff right now.” We don’t know exactly what that entails, but we have a better idea now. “This is the moment when you jettison everything specific to the last 40 years of Terminator, but you stay true to those principles,” Cameron told Empire. “You can get too wrapped up in the details, and then you lose a new audience because they don’t care as much about that stuff. That’s the risk, obviously, with Avatar as well, but I think we’ve shown that we can offer something for new audiences.”

Cameron makes a strong case. For example, I enjoyed Ghostbusters: Afterlife (though I understand why some people didn’t). I felt it introduced new characters while respecting the past. However, its sequel, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, leaned too heavily on nostalgia. It should have focused on the new characters stepping away from the older films. But, alas, James Cameron didn’t make Frozen Empire.

Instead, the man behind Titanic is returning to a different kind of bleak future. Cameron explained that while he plans to move the franchise forward, he wants to recapture what made it great in the first place. “You have powerless main characters fighting for their lives, getting no help from existing power structures, and having to work around them while maintaining a moral compass. And then you throw AI into the mix,” he mused. “Those principles are solid for storytelling today, right? So I have no doubt that future Terminator films will not only be possible, but they’ll kick ass. But this is the moment where you let go of all the specific iconography.”

Cameron seems confident! Then again, when isn’t he?