Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller has some strong words for misogynists who oppose his film. Following the backlash against Mackenzie Davis and her Kyle Reese-like role in the film, he promised her character Grace will "scare the fuck" out of them.
"If you're at all enlightened, she'll play like gangbusters. If you're a closet misogynist, she'll scare the fuck out of you, because she's tough and strong but very feminine," Miller explained to Variety. "We did not trade certain gender traits for others; she's just very strong, and that frightens some dudes. You can see online the responses to some of the early shit that's out there, trolls on the internet. I don't give a fuck."
"After Deadpool, there were a lot of projects I could've chosen, but I really wanted to see Linda Hamilton come back to personally continue her story as Sarah Connor. Like James Cameron, I always find stories about women are much more interesting than men picking up guns," he shared. "Jim's movies are grounded in reality and character and just happen to have time travel and robots. I'm wired the same way. I want to give the audience a story about Sarah and these new characters and make everything else as realistic as possible. I want to sit in the audience and believe that this shit could happen to me. That's how I'm approaching it."
The backlash against Dark Fate follows in the footsteps of other beloved franchises that have relaunched with female characters at the forefront or positioned female characters in the lead role. For instance, Ghostbusters came under fire for rebooting with an all-female cast long before it hit theaters. Likewise, a contingent of Star Wars fans frequently dismiss main character Rey as "a Mary Sue." Female-led films like Captain Marvel have also suffered from review-bombing campaigns.
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.