James Cameron Says Terminator: Dark Fate Could Start a New Trilogy

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but according to James Cameron, Terminator: Dark Fate could start a new trilogy for the franchise. Cameron spoke with Deadline for a new interview about the film, which he did story/script work for and produced, and discussed how the film could be the first in a three-part series continuing the franchise’s legacy.

“We spent several weeks breaking story and figuring out what type of story we wanted to tell so we would have something to pitch Linda [Hamilton],” he said. “We rolled up our sleeves and started to break out the story and when we got a handle on something we looked at it as a three-film arc, so there is a greater story there to be told. If we get fortunate enough to make some money with Dark Fate we know exactly where we can go with the subsequent films.”

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is (albeit not from Cameron’s mouth). Terminator Genisys was originally planned as the first film in a new trilogy, but the weak reception and box office killed those chances. The same thing happened with Terminator Salvation, which was intended to be the first installment of a three-film series but died in the same way as Genisys did six years later.

Terminator: Dark Fate is set to release on November 1st, 2019.