Arnold Schwarzenegger Blamed For Making Major Movie Flop
James Cameron thinks Terminator: Dark Fate flopped because Arnold Schwarzenegger was in it.
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James Cameron recently spoke to Deadline and explained that he probably should have left Arnold Schwarzenegger out of Terminator: Dark Fate saying “I think the movie could have survived having Linda in it, I think it could have survived having Arnold in it, but when you put Linda and Arnold in it and then, you know, she’s 60-something, he’s 70-something, all of a sudden it wasn’t your Terminator movie, it wasn’t even your dad’s Terminator movie, it was your granddad’s Terminator movie.”
According to Cameron, he refused to make the movie without Arnold, essentially turning the film into a sequel to a movie made too long ago to resonate with modern audiences. This, combined with director Tim Miller not really wanting to bring Arnold back in the first place, made the film a creative misfire and a financial flop.
James Cameron owned up to his insistence on bringing back Arnold Schwarzenegger, so it definitely seems like he recognizes that Terminator: Dark Fate wasn’t what fans were hoping for or expecting. With that being said, 2009’s Terminator Salvation was hated by fans and didn’t feature Arnold or Linda Hamilton. 2015’s Terminator Genisys, which just had Arnold and not Linda, was also a critical flop.
While bringing back Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his best roles seems like a no-brainer, it seems like the magic just can’t be recaptured at this point. While Terminator: Dark Fate ended up being one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time, losing $122.6 million, the original Terminator films were some of Cameron’s and Schwarzenegger’s best efforts, so it’s definitely disappointing to see the franchise fall so far from grace.
Maybe the lesson here is that the Terminator franchise might just need to be left alone, whether Arnold Schwarzenegger is a part of it or not. In the meantime, James Cameron has returned to his other franchise with Avatar: The Way of Water, which releases this weekend. With Cameron fully dedicated to the Avatar universe going forward, it seems pretty unlikely that he would be interested in trying another Terminator movie in the near future.
Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning to another role in a much less action-oriented franchise with Triplets. Triplets is the planned sequel to 1988’s Twins which saw Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito as long-lost brothers. Triplets will see the two brothers find out they have a third sibling played by Eddie Murphy.
Arnold Schwarzenegger will also be leading his own TV series for Netflix that is based on his 1994 action-comedy True Lies (which he also did with James Cameron). The series is called Utap and is billed as a global spy adventure that sees Arnold’s character teaming up with his daughter. Utap also stars Monica Barbaro, Fabiana Udenio, Adam Pally, Fortune Feimster, Aparna Brielle, Barbara Eve Harris, Stephanie Sy, Gabriel Luna, Tom Arnold, and Jay Baruchel.
There’s no release date set for Utap or Triplets yet, but we’ll keep you updated. However, we do know that we’ll get to see Arnold Schwarzenegger in the upcoming Kung Fury 2 sometime in 2023. That film also stars Michael Fassbender, Jorma Taccone, Alexandra Shipp, David Hasselhoff, and David Sanberg who also directs and co-writes the script with Tyler Burton Smith.
We likely won’t see James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger team up for a Terminator movie ever again, but that’s probably for the best. Instead, you can catch Avatar: The Way of Water in theaters this weekend and see Cameron do what he does best. Otherwise, you could always watch The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day and pretend like the terrible sequels never happened.
