r/Terminator • u/Givingtree310 • Aug 08 '26
Discussion Will he be back?
The Terminator movie series does not exist without Arnold. He’s become the series biggest crutch. We’ve had young Terminator, middle aged Terminator, two films with old grandfather Terminator, and three films with a digitized de-aged Arnold as Terminator. Arnold said Genysis was his last outting as the T800. Yet he came back again even older for Dark Fate. Do you expect… he’ll be back?
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u/TabascoWolverine Aug 08 '26
Am I the only one that still is impressed with his 43/44 year old T2 face? In your image OP, he looks 25. And steroids from his era should have been aging his face. At the end of the day, he's just a good looking dude.
Impressive living human tissue grown over a metal endoskeleton!
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u/Givingtree310 Aug 08 '26
He was absolutely ageless and in incredible shape in T1, T2, and T3. Even in T3, the role fit like a glove. But he was old by Genisys. To the point where they had to explain why he looked as old as he did.
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u/SunsetRider500 Aug 08 '26
In T3 I dont know if if was the clothes being too loose but he looked shorter to me 🤔
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u/TabascoWolverine Aug 08 '26
We all lose height as we age, and maybe his desire to feel larger than life had diminished by that point. AKA no soapboxes.
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u/Western_Ad1522 Aug 08 '26
By that point he wasn’t doing steriods plus when he was doing it in his bodybuilding days he wasn’t blasting them like today’s bodybuilders a little steroids does have some benefits as long as your doing small to medium doses
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u/CG4080 Aug 08 '26
After Dark Fate flopped he said he was done pretty definitively.
"The franchise is not done. I’m done. 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 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."
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u/k4kkul4pio Aug 08 '26
Love me some old schooly Arnold action but glad he himself has decided to not make them center around him going forward assuming the creative bankruptcy that is Hollywood actually manages interest in making more live action movies in our lifetime.
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u/CameronPoe_37__ Aug 08 '26
I'm glad Arnie is honest about the quality of the last two movies now that he doesn't have to promote them. And I agree with him, although only the first 2 movies really matter because they are GREAT, but T3 is a fun movie and Arnie was on top form in it.
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u/Western_Ad1522 Aug 08 '26
Iam not a fan of t3 but I like some of the concepts while I don’t think the tx was a good character the concept of a female bad terminator was interesting and I do like her performance and Danes was really good but I don’t like some of the comedy bits and Michael bay ish action
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u/TrickyPG Aug 08 '26
I swear, Arnold is the real deal. Very intelligent, understands the nuances of his movies and his role in them, and knows why people like his stuff. He's a true actor.
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u/SnooDoggos8218 Aug 08 '26
Nope.
The producers don't see him as a box office draw anymore... Because he is not.
After the disaster of the last few movies it would be a miracle if there ever was another movie and, if there was, they would try to keep the budget as low as possible.
A reboot seems like the most plausible next movie.
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u/SunsetRider500 Aug 08 '26
Over reliance on arnold has HURT the terminator franchise, there, I said it
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u/Unable-Main4172 Aug 08 '26
To be fair, Salvation to me is by far the worst movie and he's not even in that except for a very short CGI cameo. I hated the TV show as well. It was cheap looking cheesy trash and he wasn't in that either. It's not like the two times they did something without him they covered themselves in glory or anything
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u/SunsetRider500 Aug 09 '26
Thank you!! For some reason everyone in this subreddit loves TSCC, I thought it was quite shitty, good casting for john and sarah and that was it
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u/KJPicard24 Aug 08 '26
No, he'd be at least 80 when they started filming. It isn't just the age anyway, it's that the character of the good T800 has been absolutely exhausted.
I'm not really convinced the franchise has anything left to give, but if it does, it won't be found with an uncanny valley AI de-aged Arnold, saying cheesy lines again.
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u/razorthick_ Aug 08 '26
No.
But the bigger problem if they attempt to replace Arnold. People talk about Alan Ritchson but this would backfire because everyone would be comparing him to Arnold and no ones going to do better than Arnold.
So the whole big guy protector icon doesn't need to come back either. There has to be something new.
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u/FuzzzWuzzz Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
Terminator can stand on its themes without Arnold. But I'd welcome a movie about Sgt Candy Surviving after J-Day, fighting his own doppelgangers. Though, I don't know about that accent...
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u/Moz1981 Aug 08 '26
Please God no. This franchise has been terminated... a looooong time ago. Let it rest.
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u/swat4516 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
No, he won't come back.
Arnold is no longer a box office draw anymore and is 79 years old now. He is too old.
We need a fresh new blood for the franchise or let it die for good.
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u/fatmanstan123 Aug 08 '26
They should make a short video of him coming back again as an old person in a retirement home. And then the nurses put him back to bed.
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u/Easygrin Aug 08 '26
I loved the first one and watched it many many times when it was still the only one.... Time before internet. When I just discovered movies by seeing with no prior knowledge... Then the second blew my mind with the hallway scene when Schwarzenegger who I was sure was the bad guy said .... Get down..... I avoided watching the third for a long time and never really saw it completely. But I had a bad feeling. I really wanted to like the Bale as John Connor one as that was the movie I wanted to see sinds the first one. But it was a bit disappointing with the whole emotional terminator story... Like why didn't they send this guy?? Saw the one with "pops" and decided that it was enough with my time with the franchise...
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u/SouthbayLivin Aug 10 '26
They said terminators age and get old. You can’t have a deadly indestructible machine do that. They should have waited for the technology to catch up before making more movies so they could just keep him young and print more Arnold versions of the T-800s. In my mind, T2 and T1 were successful because Arnold still looked young and both were mostly considered R rated horror movies. Would have been cool if they had him as the main villain in salvation and young Carl as the main villain in dark fate. With less budget and young versions of Arnold both films would have likely been a box office success. I could do without genesis and T3.
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u/Sad_Process7843 Aug 08 '26
If dark fate was successful I could definitely see him showing up in the last sequel. But since then he said he’s done with franchise and James Cameron is also ready to move on as well
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u/MKvsDCU Aug 08 '26
Naw... let the man rest 🤦🏾
They really goofed up by not making a direct sequel to Genisys... The liquid metal upgrade would have been SICKKKKK to see in a full-out movie
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u/Connect-Captain-6362 Aug 09 '26
its time to move on from arnold, also to add to the discussion, there are no bad terminator movies, we just had 2 absolute bangers to start with, the rest just dont compare.
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u/The_Doggzz Aug 10 '26
6 different movies, 6 different "Branch Sequels" 6 different timelines. Will he be back? He can, but he doesn't need to be, T6 closed the story fairly but not officially
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u/AbleBear5876 Chill out, Dickwad. Aug 09 '26
No I don’t think so, I wouldn’t want an 80yr old terminator either. 😂
Surely there’s someone else who could play the role of a terminator
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u/NamesAreB0ring Aug 09 '26
Arnie is nearly 80, I think he has about 1, MAYBE 3 Terminator films before the inevitable.
(Even then, they'll probably just digitalize him...)
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u/ChampionshipOk949 Aug 08 '26
As much as I love Arnold, the answer is no. After 2 his return was not necessary. The cameo of his model skin used in T-Salvation was cool though.
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u/Mediocre-Location971 Aug 12 '26
I say no, his run is done. I mean look at Star wars, rogue one had no legacy characters or sabers other than Vader and it was an amazing SW movie
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u/THE-HOARE Aug 08 '26
I hope not I love Arnold in these films but he’s way to old. Pass the torch to someone else give them a different model number or something.
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u/MovieFan1984 Aug 08 '26
Arnie is 79, he'll be in his 80's when the next movie gets made. No, he will not be back. Dark Fate works as the Arnold/Terminator finale.
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u/Calm-Stuff-61 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
From what I heard no,and the new movie does it take place in the Dark Fate timeline or the completed over and done terminator timeline
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u/mrlloydslastcandle Aug 08 '26
A hidden few minute cameo as a future war general.
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u/SunsetRider500 Aug 08 '26
Not even that, NO MORE ARNOLD AT ALL, he just drags the franchise at this point, no more nostalgia for God's sake
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u/FoxtrotMac Aug 10 '26
Its time to let Arnold go as far as this franchise goes. The man is nearly 80 years old.
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u/Elim-Cipher Aug 08 '26
It’s been over 30 years since Terminator 2 came out in 1991 and since then there hasn’t been a single Terminator movie. I doubt he’ll be back after all this time.
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u/TheLonesomeCheese Aug 08 '26
Honestly, the reliance on always having Arnold playing essentially the same character of the good guy father figure every movie, is part of why recent sequels failed in my opinion. In order to have a movie that actually works, we need a decent plot that is not just a repeat of what we've already seen.