Why Arnold Schwarzenegger is done with The Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger built his entire movie star legacy on the back of The Terminator, but nearly 40 years later, he’s officially done with the franchise.

The “Austrian Oak” made the jump from bodybuilding to Hollywood in 1970, taking on the lead of Hercules in New York. It was dreadful, but it paved the way for other parts: he cameoed as a mob hitman in The Long Goodbye, and won a Golden Globe for his performance in Stay Hungry.

He got his worldwide breakthrough with Conan the Barbarian – let’s not talk about the sequel – but 1984’s The Terminator played in a different league. It is, without a doubt, the most important movie in his filmography, teeing up an insane career of beloved action movies like Predator, Commando, True Lies, and Terminator 2, one of the greatest sequels of all time.

The other entries in the franchise haven’t lived up to the reputation of the first two, but after all these years, Schwarzenegger is ready to let the T-800 go.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is done with The Terminator franchise

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Schwarzenegger discussed the prospect of him returning for another Terminator movie. “The franchise is not done. I’m done,” he said.

“I got the message loud and clear that the world wants to move on with a different theme when it comes to The Terminator. Someone has to come up with a great idea.”

The actor also appeared in Terminator 3, Terminator Salvation (his likeness was replicated using CGI), Genisys, and Dark Fate, but none of them resonated with audiences or critics as strongly as the first two movies.

“The Terminator was largely responsible for my success, so I always would look at it very fondly. 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,” he added.

Dark Fate was originally meant to be the launchpad for a new Terminator trilogy, with James Cameron seemingly returning in a more active creative capacity to pen the scripts. However, its dismal returns – a loss of more than $120 million – nixed those plans. Cameron also recently said a reboot of the franchise was “in discussion”, but there haven’t been any further updates.

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