A script for a new Terminator installment is underway, according to James Cameron.

Per Total Film, the writer/director of the first two Terminator movies and the Avatar franchise made an appearance at Dell Tech World Conference where he explained how AI's growth influenced him in writing a new film in the series. According to attendees, Cameron revealed he is writing a new Terminator project, but is waiting for AI to develop before taking the project further. He did not say if the new Terminator film would be another sequel or a full reboot of the franchise.

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This is not the first time that Cameron teased a new Terminator story. At the time of the release of Avatar: The Way of Water, Cameron told Smartless podcast that he was in active discussions to revisit the Terminator franchise with the AI angle as the hook. "If I were to do another Terminator film and maybe try to launch that franchise again, which is in discussion, but nothing has been decided, I would make it much more about the AI side of it than bad robots gone crazy," Cameron said.

The original 1984 Terminator launched Cameron's career and made a bonafide movie star out of its lead actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The low-budget sci-fi thriller was not only a hit but it also made Time Magazine's ten best movies of 1984. When Cameron revisited the franchise with 1991's Terminator 2: Judgement Day, he broke new ground with the advent of CGI by giving Schwarzenegger's archaic cyborg a formidable villain in the form of Robert Patrick's liquid metal T-1000. T2 went on to be the highest-grossing movie of 1991.

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The Massive Terminator Franchise

Cameron stepped back from the franchise for the next three installments with 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, 2009's Terminator Salvation and 2015's Terminator Genesys. Though T3 was a critical and commercial success, none of the sequels captured the magic of Cameron's installments, according to critics. In 2019, Cameron returned to the franchise as a producer and co-writer on Terminator: Dark Fate.

Despite the franchise returns of Schwarzenegger and co-star Linda Hamilton, Dark Fate failed to light up the box office. Cameron attributed Dark Fate's underperformance to being marketed as a "granddad's" movie, while Schwarzenegger felt the franchise needs to move on from him as the star. "I got the message loud and clear that the world wants to move on with a different theme when it comes to The Terminator. Someone has to come up with a great idea," Schwarzenegger said.

Source: Total Film