Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Terminator is undoubtedly one of his most iconic characters. While he's reprised the role several times since the original James Cameron film debuted in 1984, Schwarzenegger confirmed he's done playing the character after the less-than-stellar response to the recent Terminator films.
The original Terminator film followed Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor as she evades an eponymous killer cyborg sent from the future to kill and prevent her from giving birth to John Connor, the future resistance leader in a war between man and machines. Schwarzenegger returned in Cameron's acclaimed sequel titled Terminator 2: Judgement Day. However, the Terminator was reprogrammed by the future John Connor to travel to the past and defend his younger self from the more advanced T-1000. Four additional sequels were released between 2003 and 2019, but these films failed to earn the acclaim and box office success of the first two installments.
While Schwarzenegger returned for all but one of those sequels (he was the Governor of California when Terminator: Salvation was produced), he told The Hollywood Reporter that he will not play the Terminator again because of how audiences responded to the recent sequels. "The franchise is not done. I’m done. I got the message loud and clear that the world wants to move on with a different theme when it comes to The Terminator," he said. "Someone has to come up with a great idea."
Schwarzenegger also admitted they knew the last two Terminator films weren't up to par. "The Terminator was largely responsible for my success, so I always would look at it very fondly," he said. "The first three movies were great. Number four [Salvation] I was not in because I was governor. Then five [Genisys] and six [Dark Fate] didn’t close the deal as far as I’m concerned. We knew that ahead of time because they were just not well written."
Audiences seemed to agree with Schwarzenegger. While Terminator: Dark Fate was supposed to launch a new era for the franchise and attempted to entice audiences with a reunion between Schwarzenegger and Hamilton (whose Terminator characters had not worked together since Judgement Day), the latest sequel was a box office bomb and did not fare much better with critics.
Of course, Hollywood rarely lets franchises die. Cameron wants to return to the Terminator franchise, so Schwarzenegger's prediction about the film series continuing is likely correct. It seems Schwarzenegger is comfortable moving on from his iconic role, but time will tell if someone can come up with an idea to keep the Terminator franchise alive instead of on life support.
The Terminator films are available on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter