Arnold Schwarzenegger has two new television projects coming soon – a comedic thriller series and a Netflix documentary. But, he will obviously always and forever be associated with his most indelible character – The Terminator. But he has mixed feelings regarding the franchise, and particularly the most recent Terminator movies – which did not receive a great critical reception.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, 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, 2009] I was not in, because I was governor. Then five [Genisys, 2015] and six [Dark Fate, 2019] didn’t close the deal as far as I’m concerned. We knew that ahead of time because they were just not well written.”
For comparison – Terminator Salvation made $370 million at the box office and has 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, Terminator Genisys made $440 million at the box office and has 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Terminator Dark Fate made $260 million, but has a surprising 70% on Rotten Tomatoes. None of them have had anything like the impact of the first two Terminator time travel movies, but that is usually the way when trying to recapture magic from a long time ago.
Schwarzenegger’s new Netflix series FUBAR starts on May 25, and his documentary (which is just called Arnold) is out on June 7, 2023 – also on Netflix.
While we wait for those, check out our guide to the best action movies.