The Terminator franchise has not been downright “good” since 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but hopefully that’s about to change. In 2018, the rights to the Terminator franchise revert back to James Cameron, and the originator of the series has been working with current rights holder David Ellison to make plans to reinvigorate the series. Word leaked in January that Cameron was looking to oversee a new Terminator reboot, with Deadpool director Tim Miller eyed to take the helm, but nothing has been officially announced just yet.

However, in speaking with News.com.au (via CS), Cameron reveals that he’s envisioning not just one franchise reboot, but a new trilogy:

“The question is — has the franchise run its course or can it be freshened up? So I am in discussions with David Ellison, who is the current rights holder globally for the Terminator franchise and the rights in the US market revert to me under US copyright law in a year and a half, so he and I are talking about what we can do. Right now we are leaning toward doing a three-film arc and reinventing it.”

Of course, a new Terminator trilogy was also the plan when Terminator: Genisys was made, and that dreadful redo (really a cross between a straight remake and a reboot) performed poorly at the box office and was savaged by critics. Ellison’s Skydance Productions produced Genisys and had long, overarching plans for the franchise, so it’s heartening to hear that Ellison is still interested in getting Terminator right, and obviously bringing Cameron into the fold is a big win.

The rights don’t revert to Cameron until next year, so nothing official can happen until then and Cameron is plenty busy finally getting ready to start production on the first two Avatar sequels, but it’s certainly intriguing to hear that he seems invested in trying to bring Terminator back in a big way. Stay tuned…

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