Could Another Terminator Reboot Still Save The Franchise? Movie Future Explored

The Terminator franchise has a long history of unsuccessful reboots and flawed sequels, prompting some fans to wonder whether another reboot could possibly save the series. The Terminator series started strong but has struggled to keep audiences engaged and critics happy since its third installment almost two decades ago. As the franchise nears a third reboot, it is beginning to look like nothing can save the Terminator series.

The Terminator movies started well with director James Cameron’s classic sci-fi horror The Terminator in 1984. The tense, terrifying story of an android assassin sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor at any cost, The Terminator was a (comparatively) simple chase story that was as unrelentingly brutal as it was irresistibly exciting. It was hard to see how Cameron could hope to outdo this achievement with a sequel, but Terminator 2: Judgment Day managed to give Arnie’s previously chilling T-800 real heart without softening the intensity of the franchise’s action sequences.

However, since that second installment, the Terminator series has seemed impossible to fix regardless of the many approaches that different directors take to the material. Whether it is Terminator: Salvation’s underrated post-apocalyptic war movie, Terminator: Genisys’s endlessly complicated timeline mash-up, or Terminator: Dark Fate’s thwarted attempt to restart the series, the Terminator franchise resists reboots like few other properties. After two failed sequels in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation and another two failed reboots since then, it is now time for fans and the franchise’s producers to ask whether the Terminator series needs to continue.

Where The Terminator’s Original Timeline Went Wrong

It is relatively easy to trace where the Terminator series went wrong, and the moment aligns with both James Cameron’s decision not to direct the third movie and the lengthy wait between Terminator 2: Judgment Day and its lesser sequel. Cutting Sarah Connor from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines cost the franchise its story momentum and left viewers with no one to root for since John was never as much of a protagonist for the series as his mother. While John Connor could have been used as a replacement hero, the bleak ending of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines put an end to that idea, only for Terminator: Salvation’s time jump to then leave viewers even less invested in the story of John Connor, resistance leader.

Instead of centering John and showing his rise to being a leader, Terminator: Salvation picked up long after the apocalypse and barely explained John’s story between movies at all. In fairness to the troubled sequel, this is because the early, superior drafts of Terminator: Salvation featured John only as an unseen, Colonel Kurtz-esque figure who the hero spent most of the movie searching for. However, when that interesting approach was jettisoned in favor of something more blockbuster-friendly, Terminator: Salvation’s mainstream rewrite still didn’t make John the main character. As a result, viewers had little reason to care about the survival of Sarah Connors’ son where, in contrast, the first two Terminator movies left viewers on the edge of their seats hoping the heroine would make it.

Why Terminator’s Reboots Didn’t Work

Both Terminator reboots failed, although it’s worth note that the two movies had divergent problems. Almost everything wrong with Terminator: Genisys can be traced back to the 2015 movie being too eager to essentially remake the first two movies in the series. Casting Emilia Clarke as a younger Sarah Connor was a transparent attempt to reclaim the appeal of the original Terminator while making Arnie’s T-800 her beloved father figure “Pops” was clearly intended to revisit the unlikely friendship between John and the Terminator in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. A deeply confusing script did not help matters, but the central issue was that Terminator: Genisys was cobbled together out of earlier, better franchise installments. Despite all of its convoluted plot mechanics and timeline jumping, in terms of tone and content, Terminator: Genisys brought nothing new to the franchise and instead relied on viewers’ nostalgia for both the original Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

In contrast, Terminator: Dark Fate could not reasonably be accused of doing too little to distance itself from earlier outings. Indeed, the movie was too busy setting up a new timeline to offer much in the way of a meaningful connection to the original Terminator movies, particularly when John Connor died in the opening scene. However, despite this, Terminator: Dark Fate still relied on Arnie and Sarah Connor’s presence to appeal to established fans, even though the plot largely centered around a new character, Grace. The first Terminator reboot offered nothing new, while the second tried to be both a complete reboot and a continuation of the same characters simultaneously, inevitably failing at this impossible task.

Can A New Terminator Movie Still Succeed?

The Terminator franchise’s themes of technological overreach have only grown more prescient, but the muted reception of the last four movies should give fans pause. The majority of the Terminator movies have been disliked by critics, with the first two being acclaimed and the last four receiving middling to poor write-ups. However, a fresh start that did not center on Sarah Connor, John Connor, or Arnie (outside of a cameo) could still allow the Terminator series to start over and succeed anew. The franchise would need to let go of both its chase movie formula and the reliance on recurring stars for this approach to succeed, but a truly fresh Terminator reboot could still bring back audience interest.

What A New Terminator Reboot Could Look Like

Recasting the Terminator itself is the most important step to refreshing the series, alongside killing off Sarah Connor and Arnie’s T-800. Both the original T-800 and Sarah Connor have become props for the franchise to rely on, and fresh, exciting additions to the series would cut both of these beloved characters out of the story to start anew. The setting could be post-apocalyptic or it could depict the beginning of Skynet’s uprising, provided the Terminator series finds new heroes and robotic antagonists to focus on. While replacing Arnie’s T-800 and Linda Hamilton’s iconic heroine is a tall order, the Terminator franchise can only hope to revitalize its ailing brand by starting over with new stars and a fresh story unburdened by fealty to nostalgia.

About The Author

Cathal Gunning
(1446 Articles Published)

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Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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