About Terminator (franchise)
Terminator is an American media franchise created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. The franchise encompasses a series of science fiction action films, comics, novels and additional media, concerning a total war between Skynet’s synthetic intelligence – a self-aware military machine network – and John Connor’s Resistance forces comprising the survivors of the human race. Skynet’s most famous products in its genocidal goals are the various terminator models, such as the T-800, who was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the original Terminator film in 1984. By 2010, the franchise had generated $3 billion in revenue. The film franchise is considered to be of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction.
Future:
In February 2021, Netflix announced plans to develop a Terminator anime series with Skydance, Mattson Tomlin and Production I.G. In December 2022, while promoting Avatar: The Way of Water, producer and director of the first two Terminator films James Cameron revealed that another series reboot was “in discussion, but nothing has been decided”. The reboot would likely feature an entirely new cast and reset the continuity of the entire film series.RELATED:
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Cameron suggested that in hindsight, bringing back both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton for Terminator: Dark Fate had been a mistake. In May 2023, Schwarzenegger stated in an interview that he would not appear in any future franchise installments after the last few films were “not well-written”. Later that month, it was reported that Cameron was developing a script for a Terminator reboot.
The Terminator franchise, most notably James Cameron’s original films, The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, has had a significant impact on popular culture. The film franchise placed #17 on the top 25 greatest film franchises by IGN and is also in the top 30 highest-grossing franchises. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the Terminator franchise is the sixth highest rated franchise on the site behind the Toy Story franchise, the Dollars Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the Mad Max franchise and the original Star Wars trilogy,
but in front of the Indiana Jones franchise.
In 2008, The Terminator was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”. The American Film Institute (AFI) has also recognized both films on a number of occasions: the line “I’ll be back” from The Terminator placed as the 37th-best movie quote, while “Hasta la vista, baby” from Terminator 2 ranked 76th on the same list.