Arnold Schwarzenegger said he’d be back in the first Terminator movie back in 1984 and 35 years later, that’s come true, again.
He’s returned a few times since, but the first trailer for Terminator: Dark Fate reunites Schwarzenegger’s T-800 robot with Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor. The movie will introduce new characters to the franchise, including Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire) as a new hybrid between terminator and human. Other actors, like Gabriel Luna (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), will play Dark Fate’s new homicidal robot.
Dark Fate also marks director James Cameron’s return to the Terminator franchise, reuniting all three for the first time in years. Cameron will produce the film, while Deadpool’s Tim Miller is behind the camera as director. Although this is technically the sixth installment in theTerminator franchise, Dark Fate is a direct sequel to The Terminator and T2: Judgment Day. So, don’t worry about catching up with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator: Salvation, or Terminator: Genisys.
Dark Fate follows a trend of sequels to action-blockbusters that pick up the story in real-time, while ignoring some of the ill-advised sequels. The idea is to transition the franchise from Hamilton and Schwarzenegger’s characters to a younger cast with an in-continuity franchise reboot, kind of like what Disney and Lucasfilm have done with the recent Star Wars sequel trilogy, or like what Universal did with Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,both of which pick up the story years later in real-time. Based on this new trailer, age really is just a number. Hamilton is just as badass as ever in her return to Connor.
The film is designed to be the start of a new trilogy, but that’s also been said of 2009’sTerminator: Salvation and 2015’s Terminator: Genisys, both of which saw those ambitious plans dropped after they flopped at the box office. Hopefully, with Cameron returning to guide the franchise, that won’t be the case here.
Terminator: Dark Fate will hit theaters on November 1st.