Before a fan screening of Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 3D in Hollywood this evening, new Terminator director Tim Miller and series creator/producer James Cameron revealed that Terminator 2 star Linda Hamilton will return to the franchise as Sarah Connor. The Hollywood Reporter says that Miller and Cameron are working on a new trilogy of films with a writers room that includes David Goyer (Dark Angel), Charles Eglee, and Josh Friedman, who created the Terminator spin-off The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Cameron, who will regain the Terminator rights in 2019, is producing the new film series which has Deadpool director Tim Miller and David Ellison of Skydance teaming up.
“As meaningful as she was to gender and action stars everywhere back then, it’s going to make a huge statement to have that seasoned warrior that she’s become return,” Cameron said at the fan event, adding that now “there are 50-year old, 60-year old guys out there killing bad guys” in movies, “but there isn’t an example of that for women.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger was previously revealed to be returning as well. He and Linda Hamilton starred together in both the original Terminator in 1984 and the 1991 sequel.
THR adds that Cameron and Miller are treating the new movie as a direct sequel to Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
“We’re starting a search for an 18-something woman to be the new centerpiece of the new story,” Cameron said. “We still fold time. We will have characters from the future and the present. There will be mostly new characters, but we’ll have Arnold and Linda’s characters to anchor it.”
Cameron originally sold the rights to the original film for $1 to producer Gale Anne Hurd, with the agreement that he would be allowed to direct The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The first film earned $78.4 million worldwide and was topped by Cameron’s highly-acclaimed sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which grossed $519.8 million worldwide. Cameron stepped away from the franchise after that film, though three more were made, with the most recent one, Terminator Genisys, having earned $440.6 million globally (though only $89.8 million of that was domestic) on a $155 million budget.
