Get ready to muddy the waters of your temporal confusion even further, because Linda Hamilton is returning to the Terminator franchise for another film written and produced by original series creator James Cameron. Tim Miller, the director of Deadpool, is reportedly set to direct, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Also returning: Franchise star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who portrayed the original T-800 Terminator in the first 1984 film, followed by a more virtuous, reprogrammed version of the same cyborg in 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day, often considered one of the best pure action movies of all time. This film will reportedly pick up after the events of that massive box office success, effectively ignoring everything that has come along since, from Terminator 3 to Terminator Salvation and Terminator: Genisys from 2015, which featured a younger version of Linda Hamilton’s character Sarah Connor and was critically drubbed.
Confused yet? You probably should be, because the producers and writers have crafted a morass of twisting paradoxes that isn’t likely to be undone anytime soon. In fact, the report in THR seems to suggest that it won’t even be one more movie we’re receiving with Cameron as producer, but three freakin’ movies. How he’s going to be able to do this with all of the Avatar sequels still on the way, we have no idea.
Regardless, the news comes at an interesting time, only a few days after another senior citizen female lead, Jamie Lee Curtis, was announced to return to her original role in the Halloween series of slasher movies. James Cameron, likewise, has been in the news lately for a war of words with Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, in which he disparaged Wonder Woman’s credibility as a feminist icon, comparing her to Hamilton’s Terminator character along the way. Complicating the matters is the history of Cameron’s own personal life—he was married to Hamilton from 1997-1999. Could it be that he was simply trying to stir the pot a little before announcing the return of “his own” brand of feminism? Food for thought.
Regardless, it will be Hamilton’s first major appearance as Sarah Connor since 1991. The actress has largely been out of the limelight in recent years, although you may have seen her in TV roles on shows such as Defiance, Weeds or Chuck.