In Laman's Terms: The Weird History Behind All Those Post-T2 Terminator Sequels

Matt Smith in an image from a Terminator: Genisys photoshoot for Entertainment Weekly

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

And so, Terminator: Dark Fate is almost upon us. Feels like just yesterday we were all making fun of the title of then-new Terminator movie Genisys and now, here we are, trying to revive the Terminator brand once again. Though the characters and catchphrases (not to mention the level of quality) found in the first two Terminator movies will always be iconic, attempts to keep the franchise chugging past T2: Terminator 2 have ended up going down in flames. We've had three failed attempts to restart the Terminator series and now Dark Fate is hoping the presence of James Cameron and Linda Hamilton can right the wrongs and set things on track. Before we move onto the co-lead of Tully beating the crud out of robots, how about we look back at the creative decisions that led to all those failed Terminator sequels in the first place.


Though the various Terminator sequels overall stand as a pretty disposable lot of movies, there's a lot of unusual Hollywood drama going on behind-their-scenes that reflect how Terminator is one of the rare mega-Hollywood blockbuster series to not have a singular designated home. Whereas Star Wars is at Disney, James Bond is at MGM or Harry Potter is at Warner Bros., the assorted Terminator movies are scattered across multiple studios and have been mired in rights disputes for decades now. Why are the rights to the Terminator series like that? Well, it's not exactly unique to just this specific saga, pre-2000 Hollywood did tend to have more trouble keeping all its intellectual property under one roof (even MGM found 007 movies being made without them) and that was even truer when it came to lower-budgeted thrillers like the original Terminator movie.

That was a project that nobody foresaw becoming a big deal, so rights for subsequent installments ended up being held not by a singular studio but by multiple parties, specifically Hemdale Film Corporation and Carolco Pictures. Eventually, problems over rights to making another Terminator movie were wrapped up and T2 went into production. The rest, of course, is history and the rip-roaring success of T2 meant there was an immediate desire for more Terminator movies. This is where things get really interesting as, while stumbling onto the Wikipedia page for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines last week, I discovered that there was a whole saga informing the creation of what I consider to be the nadir of the Terminator series (yes, I'm aware I'm in the minority on that).

Such a saga revealed to me that James Cameron apparently had an idea for Terminator 3 back in the 1990s, a shock to me given how vehemently Cameron has maintained for years that he only had ever planned to make two movies. But yes, initially Cameron was all-in on making another Terminator movie for 20th Century Fox, who intended to pick up the sequel rights to the series at a bankruptcy auction for Carlco Pictures. Complexities emerged in the escalating price of those rights as well as in how rival bidders came in, including producer Andrew G. Vajna. This is where the process of making Terminator 3 becomes a Shakespearean tragedy, as Vajna, apparently a good friend of James Cameron, made his own bid for the Terminator 3 rights that conflicted with Cameron's separate plans for another Terminator movie.

Betrayal had now entered the scene! Cameron gave up on his pursuit of Terminator 3, Vajna got the sequel rights to Terminator movies and eventually Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines emerged through production company C2 Pictures. The films $433 million worldwide box office haul wasn't bad but it wasn't the gangbusters hit producers wanted. Though there were initial plans to do a direct follow-up to Rise of the Machines, the new owners of the Terminator series, The Halycon Company, opted to do something radically different. They were going for salvation, Terminator: Salvation that is. After a slew of lawsuits got settled, Salvation moved forward with McG at the helm with plans to kick off a whole new trilogy of movies.

Those plans went sideways went the movie became more famous for Christian Bale's rant on the set ("OOOOOOOOHHHH GOOOD FOR YOU!!") and becoming the lowest-grossing Terminator movie worldwide since the first movie. Financial issues with short-lived production company The Halycon Company further hindered attempts to provide a sequel to Salvation. This means it was time for the sequel rights to Terminator to get passed around again, with this time Skydance (taking over after Annapurna initially bought the rights to the series) being the ones who would control the future of Terminator, though they had an imminent ticking clock to deal with in making Terminator: Genisys that previous producers of Terminator sequels did not have to contend with.

Sam Worthington, the star of Terminator: Genisys

While the Terminator rights have been floating around for so long from one studio to another, once 2019 rolls around, James Cameron gets his toys back, the rights to all Terminator movies returns to him. That's presumably why Skydance/Paramount hastily announced a pair of Terminator: Genisys sequels for May 2017 and June 2018, they wanted to make money off two more movies before their rights to the movies expired. Of course, Genisys ended up being another non-starter for getting a new age of Terminator movies going and eventually, Skydance decided to compromise and take an "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach to the impending situation of Cameron getting the rights to Terminator back by just inviting him to produce their next stab at a Terminator movie.

That's where Dark Fate comes into the picture, the fourth 21st-century attempt to launch a new series of Terminator movies. Each of those attempts has had their fair share of drama surrounding who owns the Terminator series and that drama doesn't look to be ending anytime soon. A new development that came out at the start of the month revealed that producer Gale Anne Hurd was looking to gain back a large portion of the rights to the Terminator movies. Skydance isn't out of the woods yet in terms of figuring out who owns what when it comes to making new Terminator movies, but such disputes seem like as much of a staple for the series at this point as lines like "I'll be back!"