Future Terminators Will Be Female?
Even though it looks as though the Terminator franchise might be dead for now, a new rumor suggests future films will star multiple female Terminators.
Currently, it looks as though 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate might be the last we see of the franchise for quite some time. The film was a massive bomb, losing over $120 million dollars, and all plans for the film to begin a new trilogy were scrapped. But a new rumor suggests that not only are discussions happening about the future of the Terminator franchise, but also that the future might have multiple female Terminators.
This rumor comes from gossip writer Daniel Richtman, who posted the rumor on his Patreon page. While Richtman doesn’t say where he’s hearing this rumor from, or who his sources are, the rumor seems suspicious for multiple reasons. The most obvious reason this news is suspect is that co-producer Skydance has said that there are no further plans for other Terminator films, especially since the films that were scheduled to come after Dark Fate were canceled. Like the eponymous Terminator, this franchise does keep coming back, so it’s likely Dark Fate wasn’t actually the final nail in the coffin.
The other weird thing about this rumor is that having female Terminators isn’t even really news. This franchise has had multiple female Terminators over the years, starting with Kristanna Loken’s T-X in 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Summer Glau’s Cameron in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was also a Terminator, and Mackenzie Davis’ Grace Harper in Dark Fate had robotic augmentations. Saying that the future of Terminator will have female Terminators isn’t exactly a rumor, it’s more of a likely inevitability.
Yet apparently the last few installments in this series have all been attempts to start a new Terminator trilogy. Salvation and Genisys both had plans for follow-ups, but were also scrapped, with Genisys even planning a connected television series. At this point, instead of making major box office disappointments and false starts to a new series of films, maybe Terminator should return to the world of television for the time being?
According to Mackenzie Davis, the scrapped seventh Terminator installment would have included even more playing around with timelines and alternate futures, and the film would’ve also been set in the future. But considering how convoluted and insane the timelines had become over the last few years, it’s probably for the best that this seventh film didn’t become a reality.
But this franchise has been steadily losing interest domestically for years now. 2003’s Rise of the Machines earned $150 million, while 2009’s Salvation fell to $125 million. Genisys would make $89 million in 2015, with Dark Fate making only $62 million. While the series is still usually profitable thanks to international markets, the lack of interest in North America and the ridiculously high production budgets may end up being the death of Terminator, at least for now.
As for this rumor, it seems clear that the future would have female Terminators. The bigger aspect of this rumor is that there is a future for this franchise, and while there almost certainly will be more films someday, it doesn’t look as though that day is coming any time soon.
