The Terminator will be back!! Well, if the people want him. After Terminator Genisys failed to light a fire under audiences and got shredded by critics, reports surfaced last week that any sequels were on indefinite hold. That was a big deal because Paramount had pretty big plans that stretched beyond the big screen and into the world of TV. But the franchise isn't dead according to Skydance's chief creative officer Dana Goldberg speaking at The Wrap's 6th Annual Media Leadership Conference, but she admits some serious retooling is needed before the franchise boots back up.
“Do we intend to have a next step of Terminator? Yes, we do,” she said. “I wouldn’t say on hold, so much as re-adjusting. At Skydance, when we talk movies, we talk universes, even more than franchises. So the idea of a Terminator TV show fits into that universe. All the steps have to be taken in unison.”
So the TV series may very well be alive, but cinematic sequels remain in question. The emphasis seems to be on figuring out what audiences want from a Terminator franchise, using “data and research to do a worldwide study and really talk to audiences about what they loved, and what maybe didn’t work for them, so that the next we take with the franchise is the right one.”
It seems pretty obvious that what people want is no Terminator movies at all. Maybe Paramount recognizes that, too, which is why there's a sudden emphasis on TV and less on sequels. Production on the two planned movies has been shifted as a result.
“We are not going to begin production at the beginning of next year, because again, it would be silly to not have to worry about what audiences have to say.”
The Terminator movies haven't been successful for a while, and neither was the short-lived TV series, so does anybody really want it to continue?
