Summary

James Cameron reaffirms that he’s working on a secretive Terminator project.
This is likely a script for Terminator 7, which he has mentioned previously.
This update came when asked about Netflix’s upcoming
Terminator Zero
, which has no connection to Terminator 7 but Cameron says he’s “curious” about.

James Cameron provides an ambiguous update on Terminator 7. Little is known about Cameron’s next installment in the long-running franchise, although he has previously teased that he is in the process of writing a Terminator 7 script. Cameron directed and co-wrote The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, along with producing and helping to develop the story for the most recent film installment, Terminator: Dark Fate, which was released in 2019.

While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron shared his thoughts on Netflix’s upcoming anime Terminator Zero series, and hinted at his work on Terminator 7, stating that “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 also expressed being intrigued by Terminator Zero despite not being involved with the project. Check out his comments on Terminator Zero and more on his project below:

It looks interesting. My relationship to that is very much like The Sarah Connor Chronicles — other people spinning stories in a world I set in motion is interesting to me. What’s their takeaway? What intrigued them about it? Where are they going with it? It looks like they’re going back to the root cause of Judgment Day — the nuclear war — and whether that’s an ultimate timeline. I’d be curious to see what they’ve come up with.
I’m working on my own Terminator stuff right now. It’s got nothing to do with that. Like with The Sarah Connor Chronicles, they occasionally touched on things I had been playing with completely independently. So there’s some curiosity there. It’s not a burning curiosity, but, obviously, it’d be nice to see it succeed.

The Terminator Franchise May Need To Move Beyond James Cameron
He Made The First Films A Success, But The Franchise Needs New Blood Now

Cameron is undeniably a significant reason why the Terminator franchise became so successful in the first place. His direction and creative vision not only launched the franchise but led to Judgment Day still being considered one of the best movie sequels of all time. As important as Cameron is to the Terminator series, in order for it to be revitalized and not result in another disappointing film sequel or reboot, it may need some new creative oversight.

Movie Tomatometer Score Audience Score The Terminator (1984) 100% 89% Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 91% 95% Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) 70% 46% Terminator Salvation (2009) 33% 53% Terminator Genisys (2015) 26% 52% Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) 70% 82%

None of the films have been able to live up to the heights of The Terminator or Judgment Day, partly because many of them have tried to lean too heavily on the characters, storylines, and lore of those two films. While Dark Fate was better received than some of the more recent entries in the franchise, even with Cameron’s involvement, it still paled in comparison to the two original films. With Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Linda Hamilton still not enough to restore the franchise to its glory days, this was a clear sign that new creative direction is needed.

Related Terminator: Dark Fate Repeated James Cameron’s Biggest Movie Regret, And It Killed The Franchise Terminator: Dark Fate’s opening scene featured a shocking twist that repeated a mistake creator James Cameron criticized in another iconic franchise.

New creators need to find a way forward without overly relying on what has already been done, as that was an issue with the installments Cameron was not involved in. In terms of logistics, having Cameron at the center of Terminator 7’s production also may not be feasible as he remains busy with Avatar sequels for the foreseeable future. The franchise would not exist without Cameron, but in order to survive, it needs a fresh start moving forward.

Source: THR