Arnold Schwarzenegger has been part of the Terminator franchise from the start and returned to lend his talents to later instalments as well.
While his "cameo" in Salvation was created with CG, the actor took on leading roles in both Genisys and Dark Fate, two movies that received negative reviews and performed poorly at the box office (both were considered franchise killers). A new approach is obviously needed, and if and when it happens, it will be minus the T-800.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter (via SFFGazette.com), Schwarzenegger said, "The franchise is not done. I’m done."
"I got the message loud and clear that the world wants to move on with a different theme when it comes to The Terminator. Someone has to come up with a great idea. The Terminator was largely responsible for my success, so I always would look at it very fondly. The first three movies were great."
"Number four [Salvation] I was not in because I was governor," he continued. "Then five [Genisys] and six [Dark Fate] didn’t close the deal as far as I’m concerned. We knew that ahead of time because they were just not well written."
That's not Arnie's only iconic role, of course, as his big break in Hollywood came playing Conan the Barbarian. We've been hearing about plans for The Legend of Conan for years now, but it doesn't sound like the project is anywhere near as far along as many outlets have reported.
"It’s been pending for the last 10 years," Schwarzenegger admits. "[Fredrik] Malmberg owns the rights. He comes to me and says, “Oh, I have a deal with Netflix,” and when we ask Netflix, they don’t know anything about it. It’s one of those crazy things. I hope he figures it out."
"There’s a great script out there that John Milius wrote, and others have written one. The story is there. There are directors who want to do it. But he has the rights, and until he sells the rights for one or two movies, or for the franchise, there’s nothing you can do about it."
It's a shame to think the actor won't be back as the T-800 or Conan, but the time for those characters may have been and gone, freeing the silver screen icon to move on to new roles.
Sylvester Stallone, for example, has closed the door on Rocky, but found new roles in the Marvel and DC Universe as characters like Stakar Ogord and King Shark. We'd love to see the former Governor of California follow suit, but time will tell on that front.