Gale Anne Hurd, the producer on the first three Terminator films, suggests the troubled franchise still has a “potential future.” Hurd, who is the founder of Valhalla Entertainment (formerly known as Pacific Western Productions), was once married to director James Cameron and produced several of his earlier films, including Aliens and The Abyss. More recently, she has also served as a producer on the hit television series The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.
Since Cameron’s original 1984 release of The Terminator, the franchise has seen five other sequels developed with varying degrees of success. While Cameron’s own 1991 sequel T2: Judgement Day is considered by many to be not only the best entry in the franchise, but one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time, every other successive attempt to recreate that success has failed to receive anywhere near the same level of critical acclaim. Each of the three most recent films, 2009’s Terminator Salvation, 2015’s Terminator Genisys, and 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate, all attempted to serve as a jumping-off point for a freshly reinvigorated franchise with plans for their own direct sequels, all of which were subsequently canceled or failed to materialize due to poor audience response.
Despite all of these setbacks, Hurd still firmly believes that there is a place for more Terminator films in the future. While she was receiving her Lifetime Achievement Award at the Swiss Locarno Film Festival, Hurd spoke to Variety about several topics and was asked whether she thought the Terminator franchise she helped create has finally seen its last days. Check out her answer below:
Honestly, I have no idea. I wasn’t involved in the last one. To give you some perspective, I used to have a scuba diving practice in Micronesia, and we found that they even screened “The Terminator,” albeit a bootleg video version, of one of the most remote islands in the world. The awareness is already built in, and I do think it’s a perennial with the right story with the right cast and the right direction. I think there could still be a potential future there.
Despite each big-screen attempt since T2 failing to live up to their predecessors, Hurd is probably right to suggest the franchise does still have a future if they can ever manage to crack the right approach. Fans initially had high hopes for Terminator: Dark Fate, as it not only featured the return of original star Linda Hamilton to the franchise, but it was also the first James Cameron was directly involved in since T2. Unfortunately, the film tanked at the box office and failed to break even on its enormous production and marketing budget, potentially putting a halt to any of its own planned sequels.
Perhaps, however, the immediate future of the Terminator franchise may belong on television. While the later films all failed to stir much audience affection, the short-lived television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was extremely well received by fans and even spawned numerous campaigns to revive the series following its cancellation. Netflix has also announced they are in the process of developing a Terminator anime series. Fans will no doubt be keeping their fingers crossed that this new series will hit the mark, but the future of the theatrical side of the franchise is still up in the air.
Source: Variety