Terminator: Dark Fate avoided making the same mistakes as the previous franchise sequel, Terminator Genisys. The James Cameron-produced film is a direct sequel to his Terminator 2: Judgement Day, wiping-out every film after that 1991 hit, including the box-office bomb Genisys. Thanks in large part to the return of Cameron, the film certainly helped bring the series back to form in many regards, at least creatively. Although Terminator: Dark Fate's ending doesn't preclude the possibility of sequels, it was clear that Cameron was very careful to avoid the same trap that befell its predecessor, Terminator Genisys.
The Terminator franchise has a long and complex history, even outside of its broken time travel mechanics and story threads that have been stricken from the canon. Early on, the series seemed to know where it was going, which doesn't seem right given how much it likes to jump around. With James Cameron at the helm for Terminator and T2: Judgement Day, there was a clear, concise vision that allowed the series to move forward without any real trouble. Once Cameron left the series after the second film, the franchise's quality took a nosedive.
T3: Rise of the Machines was not terribly well received upon release, and its follow-up film Terminator Salvation was a critical failure. By 2015, the year of Terminator Genisys' release, it was clear that the franchise was struggling to make films that stood up based on their own merit. The critical and commercial blunder of Terminator Genisys only proved that point further. Worsening this was the fact that both Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys were soft-reboots created to usher in trilogies of their own. Obviously, no such sequels were made for the films, which were financial failures, but Dark Fate wisely side-steps such issues.
Terminator Genisys Left Many Unanswered Questions
Terminator Genisys was by no means intended to be a standalone film. It clearly looked to reinvigorate the franchise, with the entire concept of Genisys and the introduction of the T-3000 Terminator model reeking of soft-reboot. There were unanswered questions by the film's end, designed to entice fans into calling for a sequel that would expand the new ideas introduced in the film. The problem was, the film did the exact opposite.
Continuity is a huge sticking point for this franchise, and in this regard Terminator Genisys did not help the problem. Big questions dragged the film down. How exactly did John Connor exist even though Kyle and Sarah never conceived him? Why did Skynet send a T-800 back to 1984, when clearly more advanced models were available? Not to mention the biggest question of them all: how did Skynet survive its supposed destruction in the final act of the film?
These questions are what drove Terminator Genisys into the ground — coupled with its need for a sequel in order to feel whole. Any desire for a continuation of that story, however, was not strong enough to warrant consideration. The film's production team put the cart before the horse, resulting in a film that doesn't stand up on its own; because of this, these questions will never receive proper resolution.
Terminator: Dark Fate Tells A (Mostly) Complete Story
As for 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate, it was clear that there was a conscious effort made by the production team to avoid the predecessor's mistakes. Notably, Terminator: Dark Fate has a resolution.  The story ends on a note that is not reliant on the story moving past this film. In the end, Sarah and Dani drive off into the sunset with really no indication of where the story will go next. The Rev-9 is destroyed along with Grace and Carl, wrapping everything up in a fairly neat package. The story resolves itself in a largely complete manner, succeeding where Terminator Genisys slipped up in assuming a sequel was to come and leaving too many aspects of the story open-ended.
Of course, there are more general questions that could arise in the form of a Terminator: Dark Fate sequel, mostly revolving around the adventures of Sarah and Dani as they continue to hunt Terminators, or even more time travel elements — a plot device that the film franchise is known for. It is just open-ended enough that if there was to be a seventh film in the series, it wouldn't feel illogical. Yet, at the same time, there is no sense that there is the remainder of a story left to tell.
Can Dark Fate Stop Another Terminator 3?
The big question that arises from this is will the Terminator franchise be rebooted yet again? Or has this conclusion stopped the viscous cycle of Terminator sequels attempting to clear the slate of the series? Terminator: Dark Fate didn't appear dead-set on reinventing the wheel, which is something that previous films had tried to do, with little-to-no success. In doing so, there does not appear to be as much of a need for a soft reboot. Whether or not this will happen though is to anyone's guess.
The Terminator franchise is in a tough spot financially right now. Although the recent film avoided making the same mistakes of its predecessors, and attempted to reinvigorate the franchise with the energy and influence of its early days, Terminator: Dark Fate was not the box office hit it needed to be to accomplish this. The franchise is still paying for its previous mistakes, which is a shame. There is some measure of fatigue with the franchise after so many start-stop attempts to revitalize it, all really beginning after T3: Rise of the Machines. Terminator: Dark Fate, while flawed, did a better job of capturing the spirit of the first two films than the now non-canon films did. Having Cameron back at the helm was for the best, and with any luck, the series can grow from here instead of attempting to start from scratch yet again.
If there will be another Terminator film, the question remains to be answered of what exactly its intentions will be. The series could always receive another new direction, only loosely tying into Terminator: Dark Fate, or we could finally get a sequel that is based more heavily on its predecessor. In a strange way, it is incredibly convenient that Terminator: Dark Fate ended so conclusively, given that the fate (no pun intended) of the franchise is looking rather conflicted at the moment. Never before has the phrase "I'll be back" had so many potential interpretations.