While Terminator: Dark Fate is still a few months away from its wide theatrical release, the filmmakers are already thinking about the future of the iconic sci-fi franchise.
Terminator co-creator James Cameron, who returned to produce and co-write the new sequel, hinted that while crafting the film's story to develop a pitch for returning series star Linda Hamilton, he and the other writers had developed plans for a full trilogy starting with Dark Fate.
"We spent several weeks breaking story and figuring out what type of story we wanted to tell so we would have something to pitch Linda," explained Cameron in an interview with Deadline. "We rolled up our sleeves and started to break out the story and when we got a handle on something we looked at it as a three-film arc, so there is a greater story there to be told. If we get fortunate enough to make some money with Dark Fate we know exactly where we can go with the subsequent films."
Dark Fate is the sixth film in the franchise, though ignores the events of all but the original 1984 film and its direct sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day, both of which were directed and co-written by Cameron. The new film follows a hybrid human-Terminator defending a young woman from another killer robot while seeking assistance from Sarah Connor to save the future of humanity.
Directed by Tim Miller and produced by James Cameron, Terminator: Dark Fate stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis, Gabriel Luna, Natalia Reyes and Diego Boneta. The film opens Nov. 1.