One of the most discussed and largely polarizing TV episodes of the millennium so far, Stranger Things’ series finale has wowed some fans, perplexed others, and for a select group, Eleven’s debatable and vaguely explained fate was the last straw. As opposed to the rumored “secret episode” that fueled a wave of #ConspiracyGate posts on social media, Netflix unveiled the sprawling behind-the-scenes doc One Last Adventure. It didn’t change how I think things played out, but the doc showcased a batch of unused finale ideas, including one involving Dr. Kay.

For One Last Adventure, director Martina Radwan had untethered access to the bulk of the production, and spent time both in the writers room as well as on the sets. At one point during the second half, the camera pans across a whiteboard with a series of finale events on it laid out in sequential order, as seen below. (Just to stress it here: none of the early ideas noted on the board are meant to represent what plays out in the finalized finale.)

Lower down on the left side, partially obscured by a chair, fans can see what appears to be an early idea for how to eliminate the season’s biggest (and also conversely the most useless) military threats in Linda Hamilton’s Dr. Kay and Alex Breaux’s Lt. Robert Akers. Here’s what it appears to say:

Now, because the words aren't entirely clear, I can't say with certainty what it says. But if I were a betting man, I might put money on the idea that in this version of events, after Kali gets fatally shot, she uses her powers to make Kay and Akers kill each other. Or perhaps it's closer to what happened in the episode, and El is the one who steps in and makes Kay and Akers shoot each other.

Whatever the specific details might be, I'm all-in on believing this indicates the goal at some point was to actually kill Linda Hamilton's character off, in part because her name doesn't pop up on the board again after that. Plus, this version of events would actually close out her story, which bafflingly did not happen in the episode that was released. In fact, we have zero ideas about where things left off for her, beyond the general idea that she bought into Eleven's "sacrifice."

In the version of the finale that was released, Akers specifically acted without Dr. Kay's permission or involvement, so she wasn't present and active during the scene where Akers shot Kali. While it was obviously great that he eventually gets killed, I don't know that any poetic justice was achieved in having Eleven do it. I would have loved to see Kay and Akers take each other out, regardless of whether Kali manipulated them into it or not. It doesn't make any sense for her to still be alive without repercussions.

Had there bene plot reasons involved, such as an eventual goal to have Dr. Kay show up in a future Stranger Things spinoff, then I could more easily understand leaving her story so open-ended. But the Duffer brothers have stated that none of the familiar characters from this show will be returning in future projects. That could change, of course, but I'm still not sure it'd be worth the wait.

All five seasons of Stranger Things can be streamed via Netflix subscription, which will also be required to travel back to the mid-'80s for the impending spinoff Tales From '85, which is set to hit the 2026 TV schedule later in the year.

Stranger Things is over (sorry, folks, #ConformityGate wasn’t actually a thing), and while there were aspects of the final season that I liked, I also have issues with a handful of the narrative choices. The one that has most consistently been bothering me is Linda Hamilton’s role as Dr. Kay. I was psyched when it was announced in June 2023 that the Terminator 2 actress was boarding the popular Netflix subscription-exclusive series, but now roughly two and a half years later, I’m disappointed by how poorly she was used and need to talk about it.

Dr. Kay Is As One-Dimensional As It Gets

Dr. Kay is essentially a blending of Matthew Modine’s Dr. Martin Brenner and Sherman Augustus’ Lt. Colonel Jack Sullivan (who was last seen in Season 5 recovering from his injuries sustained during Vecna’s attack). As the head of the military’s occupation of Hawkins, Indiana and its base in the Upside Down, Kay was injecting pregnant women with Kali’s blood in the hopes of restarting Brenner’s program with their babies. But Kali’s blood wasn’t cutting it, so Kay was desperate to capture Eleven to see if hers would do the trick with giving these offspring superpowers.

And, that’s basically the only function Dr. Kay served in Stranger Things Season 5. While there was at least an air of mystery surrounding her when it was unclear who the military was keeping imprisoned in the Upside Down, once that was revealed to be Kali, Kay felt like an afterthought. She and the soldiers continued to hunt down Eleven, but it amounted to nothing in the midst of our protagonists dealing with Vecna. We never learned anything about Kay beyond her drive to grow a new generation of superpowered children, and once the Upside Down was blown up, she just disappeared with no direct acknowledgment.

Dr. Kay Should Have Gotten A Personal Arc

Dr. Kay was one of only two new leading characters who were introduced in Stranger Things Season 5, the other being Derek. (I’d argue Holly Wheeler should count as a third given how much of a non-entity she was in the first four seasons, but that’s a different conversation.) While I wouldn’t call Derek one of my favorite Stranger Things characters, at least he felt like a fully fleshed-out individual. Dr. Kay was more of a tool to throw in simply to drive the plot forward.

With eight episodes ranging from 50 minutes to two hours each, some time should have been carved out to give Dr. Kay a personal arc. Maybe we could have learned about a connection she had with Brenner, hence why she was so keen on continuing his work. Maybe we could have flashed back to a traumatic event she experienced in the military that she believed she could prevent from happening again by creating super-powered people. I personally would have liked Kay to have factored into why we never saw Dr. Sam Owens again.

In any case, Linda Hamilton deserved better from her time on Stranger Things. My only hope now is that if the live-action spinoff in development takes place after Season 5, Dr. Kay is brought back for it. She has the potential to be a good character, but the now-concluded flagship show failed to utilize her properly.

Many of the biggest action stars of all time, in the best action movies, got their start in the 1980s and 1990s when action movies really started to dominate Hollywood. Stars like Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, and Keanu Reeves all started making their mark in those seminal decades in film. This gallery is a tribute to all the action stars who are still making movies today, but began their careers decades ago.

Keanu Reeves

While he broke out in comedies like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Parenthood, it wasn't long before Keanu Reeves was starring in big action flicks like Point Blank and Speed. Reeves isn't just an action star, but with the lead in two now-iconic franchises, The Matrix and John Wick, he definitely belongs near the top of any list like this.

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie's career started early. She was just 6 years old when she appeared in her first movie in 1982 alongside her dad, Jon Voight. By the late '90s, she was on her way to becoming one of the biggest stars in the world. She got into action movies with films like Gone In 60 Seconds and her biggest franchise, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and while she has always kept one foot in more indie-type movies (including as a director), she's been a steady action star for decades.

Nicolas Cage

It's hard to come up with a Hollywood star with a more diverse acting career than Nicolas Cage. His rage is actually pretty amazing, and that certainly includes starring in some great action movies, like the iconic Con Air and the National Treasure movies.

Scarlett Johansson

Like a lot of actors on this list, Scarlett Johansson can't be pigeon-holed as simply an action star. She is, however, one of the major players in the MCU as Black Widow, and has starred in other action flicks like Jurassic World Rebirth and Lucy.

Wesley Snipes

Most of the biggest box office successes of Wesley Snipes' early career were comedies like Major League, Wildcats, and White Men Can't Jump. In the early '90s he transistioned into action movies with leading roles in the likes of New Jack City, Passenger 57, and Rising Son. He also starred in Demolition Man with Sylvester Stallone, and, of course, as Blade in three movies.

Halle Berry

You might not think of Halle Berry as an action star... until you remember how many superhero movies she's starred in. Not only was she an important part of the X-Men franchise, but she was also Batwoman in 2004 and has also starred in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and others.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

This one is a little tricky. Technically, action movie legend Arnold Schwarzenegger had his first role way back in 1970 with Hercules in New York, but that was really a one-off B-movie that was soon forgotten. After he spent the 1970s winning every bodybuilding trophy on Earth, he entered Hollywood properly in 1982 when he starred in Conan the Barbarian. Everything since is action history.

Robert Downey, Jr.

Robert Downey, Jr. doesn't jump off the page as an action star. The Oscar winner has proven he can star in any genre, but as the anchor of the MCU movies for more than a decade, he definitely belongs on this list.

Tom Cruise

There's nothing to be said about Tom Cruise that hasn't already been written, right? One of the biggest stars in Hollywood history, Cruise has starred in action movies like Top Gun and its sequel, a couple of Jack Reacher movies, the Mission: Impossible franchise, and great one-offs like Edge of Tomorrow, War of the Worlds, and Minority Report, to name just a few. Plus, he famously does a ton of his own stunts, which shows just how much he belongs on any list of big action stars.

Milla Jovovich

Milla Jovovich started as a model, but transitioned to movies with films like Return to the Blue Lagoon and Dazed and Confused. Soo,n though, she started popping up in legendary action movies like The Fifth Element and, most notably, as Alice in six Resident Evil movies.

Jean-Claude Van Damme

In the '80s, a whole slew of action-first stars emerged, and one of the most popular was Jean-Claude Van Damme. Van Damme first gained fame in No Retreat, No Surrender, and followed that with hits like Bloodsport and Cyborg.

Linda Hamilton

Director James Cameron can be divisive, but you can't argue that he knows how to create female action star leads with great parts and great casting. Linda Hamilton is a legend from her appearances in the Terminator movies over the years.

Kurt Russell

Okay, we have to acknowledge that Kurt Russell's career started when he was a child star with Disney way back in the 1960s. In the '80s, he fully dove into action flicks in a big way with movies like Escape from New York, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China, all directed by one of the decade's best directors, John Carpenter. He's since been in a slew of action movies.

Mel Gibson

With the Mad Max franchise and the Lethal Weapon movies, Mel Gibson would be on this list even if those were his only movies. Of course, he has so much more, like Braveheart, Ransom, and many of the other best action movies of the '90s.

Thandiwe Newton

Thandiwe Newton debuted in 1991's comedy Flirting, and in the '90s and beyond, she's starred in action movies like Mission: Impossible 2, The Chronicles of Riddick, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and 2012. She's also starred in TV shows like Westworld that fit in this genre, too.

Dolph Lundgren

One of the pillars of cheesy (and awesome) '80s action is the great Dolph Lundgren. From fantasy heroes like He-Man in 1987's Masters of the Universe to communist boxers like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, he's been a staple for decades in lots of action movies, including part of the O.G. cast in The Expendables franchise.

Lucy Liu

Lucy Liu kicked off her career in the early '90s, and before too long, she started doing some awesome action movies. Probably the most notable are the Charlie's Angels movies and the Kill Bill movies, but she's also got some less-well-known ones like The Man with the Iron Fists, directed by RZA, and even superhero movies, like Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

Jason Statham

Like other actors on this list, Jason Statham didn't start in true action flicks. His first roles were in the Guy Ritchie films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, but within a couple of years, he became a full-blown action hero in The Transporter and The Italian Job. Now it seems like he's in all the biggest action franchises, like The Expendables and the Fast & Furious movies.

Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron is one of the most versatile actresses in Hollywood. She won an Oscar for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the terrifying true story Monster. She's also been in acclaimed dramas like The Road, Cider House Rules, and Bombshell. Of course, she's starred in a whole slew of great action movies like Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, Æon Flux, and a few of the Fast & Furious movies.

Jet Li

Jet Li started out in movies in Hong Kong in the early 1980s, where he quickly established himself as one of the great martial arts stars in Chinese-language films. After a decade and a half in Hong Kong, he moved to Hollywood in the late '90s, starring first as the villain in Lethal Weapon 4 in 1998. He became such a big action star that he was included in the first three Expendables movies.

Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner might not seem like the typical action star, but he definitely is. Movies like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Postman, and the incredibly underrated Waterworld prove that when he wants to be, he can be a great action hero.

Michelle Yeoh

Like some other actors on this list, Michelle Yeoh starred in martial arts movies in Hong Kong in the '90s. Her breakout film in the West was as Wai Lin in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, where she showed the whole world her stage fighting and stunt skills. Since then, she's been in hits like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and, of course, Everything Everywhere All at Once, for which she won the Oscar for Best Actress.

Bruce Willis

There's no way this list would be complete without the great Bruce Willis! Die Hard will always be one of the best action movies of all time and in many ways helps define what a action movie in the 1980s looked and felt like. Only Willis could have pulled off the the wit and charm of John McClane. He's been in a ton of action movies since, of course. He is now retired, due to his health, but he worked right up until he no longer could.

Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz took a long hiatus from acting, finally returning in the 2025 Netflix release, appropriately called Back in Action. While she may be best known for her roles in romcoms like There's Something About Mary and The Mask and dramas like Gangs of New York and Vanilla Sky, she's had her fair share of action hits too, like Charlie's Angels and Knight and Day.

Steven Seagal

It's easy to forget just how huge an action star Steven Seagal was in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He actually sort of dominated the box office with movies like Hard To Kill, Above The Law, Mark For Death, and Out For Justice. He reached the artistic pinnacle of his career with 1992's Under Siege. It's not just a great movie for teenage boys like his first four movies; it's legitimately a great movie, with great performances from Seagal, Tommy Lee Jones, and Gary Busey. Sure, he's not making movies on that level anymore, but he's still been churning out straight-to-video-type releases for decades.

Peter Weller

Peter Weller's breakout came in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension in 1984, but he really hit the big time with 1987's classic RoboCop. Sure, it was insanely violent, but RoboCop had a unique political message, too. Weller's been going strong ever since.

Robert Patrick

The iconic T-1000 in Terminator 2 became one of the great action villains of the 1990s. Robert Patrick played the role of the callous, cold robot killer perfectly. It established him as a legit action star, and he's been busy ever since.

Mickey Rourke

Mickey Rourke isn't only an action star. In fact, most of his roles have been in serious dramas, starting with movies like The Pope of Greenwich Village and 9½ Weeks in the 1980s, but he's definitely proven his action bona fides with roles in Iron Man 2, Sin City, and The Expendables.

Matt Damon

Anyone who has starred as Jason Bourne in four films deserves to be on this list. Sure, Matt Damon might not be the first actor you think of as an action hero, but come on! You can't deny that he belongs on this list for those films alone. Throw in movies like The Martian and Elysium, and he definitely should be here.

Dwayne Johnson

We're making a slight exception here. Technically, Dwayne Johnson's first movie credit came in 2001 in The Mummy Returns, but he had been quite famous for years for his work in the WWE throughout the 1990s. So while he didn't get his start in movies until later, he was a well-established star years before that. Of course, in the two and a half decades since his first movie role, he's become one of the biggest action heroes of all time.

Zoe Bell

This is another interesting case. Zoe Bell's first acting role in a movie was in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof in 2007. However, she had already built a legendary career as a stunt woman going back to the 1990s. With the Academy Awards (finally) adding a trophy for best stunts, we're going to include Bell here, because she's been performing in movies for decades.

Will Smith

He started as a rapper, then got into acting with comedy, and in the '90s, Will Smith became a big action star with movies like Independence Day, Bad Boys, and Men in Black. He's proven to be a very versatile actor over the years, starring in every genre of film you can think of.

James Cameron's The Terminator is considered one of the best sci-fi movies, as is its sequel Judgement Day. These films started a bonafide franchise, with the most recent installment being Dark Fate (which is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription). That movie brought back Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, although the iconic actress recently got real about the "underwritten" blockbuster, as well as a hot take about her signature character.

When ranking the Terminator movies, Dark Fate unfortunately isn't at the top. While it was originally supposed to begin a new trilogy of movies, those plans failed to come to fruition. While speaking with ComicBook in a recent interview, she explained her own disappointment with the 2019 title. In her words:

Honestly, that's some solid advice. While Dark World brought back OG actors and featured some thrilling action, all of that is useless without putting enough heart in the story. And per Hamilton, we could have used more of Sarah's humanity throughout its 128-minute runtime.

While Hamilton has her thoughts about the sequel, CinemaBlend's Terminator: Dark World review praised it for being a legitimately good movie. What's more, Arnold Schwarzenegger claimed Salvation is the worst of the Terminator movies.

Sarah Connor's transformation in T2 is a truly iconic part of film history, which is why so many fans love Linda Hamilton's character. But she's got her own perspective on that, explaining why she's far from aspirational. In her words:

Hamilton clearly understands this character well, so her perspective on Sarah Connor is fascinating. And overall it sounds like she thinks the heroine is basically "living in hell." Considering the terrifying experiences she's had, as well as John's death in Dark World's opening scene, it's hard to argue with her logic.

It should be interesting to see if/when the Terminator franchise ever returns to theaters. For her part, it seems like Linda Hamilton might have finished her tenure as Sarah Connor. As of now, there's no plans on the 2025 move release list or beyond. But as previously mentioned, Dark World and other titles are streaming on Paramount+.

Sometimes, a character and a project come around that impacts the zeitgeist deeply, and when that happens, the role becomes permanently attached to an actor’s legacy. This list includes over 30 actors from some of the greatest movies and TV shows who will forever be remembered for one role. 

Daniel Radcliffe – Harry Potter, Harry Potter 

While Daniel Radcliffe’s list of best movies is long and notable – with entries like Swiss Army Man and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story – he will always be known first and foremost as The Boy Who Lived. The actor took on the titular role of Harry Potter when he was 12 years old, and he’s the face of a franchise of movies that have raised countless people. So, while he is beloved for lots of things, nothing will ever be as big and prominent as his role in the Wizarding World.  

Aaron Paul – Jesse Pinkman, Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad and its cast truly took the world by storm, and the guys leading the charge, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, became certified legends because of it. It’s hard to separate Paul from Jesse Pinkman, and the impact he made with his fellow ensemble members in this incredible show.  

Sarah Michelle Gellar – Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

When you play one of the greatest TV characters of all time, obviously, it’ll be the thing you’re most remembered for. For Sarah Michelle Gellar, she’ll always be known as the legendary Buffy the Vampire Slayer after playing the empowering and strong titular character for seven seasons in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. 

Robert Downey Jr. – Iron Man/Tony Stark, Iron Man

Yes, Robert Downey Jr. won an Oscar for Oppenheimer, and yes, he’s well known for roles in other films, like Sherlock Holmes. However, when you single-handedly help successfully start a cinematic universe like the one Marvel has and star in nine of those projects, yes, you are going to be known for playing that character forever.

So, when it comes to RDJ’s legacy, his role as Iron Man/Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be the thing he’s remembered forever for.  

Elijah Wood – Frodo, Lord of the Rings

Like Daniel Radcliffe and Harry Potter, so many grew up with Elijah Wood and Lord of the Rings. His portrayal of the hobbit Frodo Baggins was incredibly impactful, and while he has gone on to play a variety of memorable roles, there’s no denying the power of the Rings. 

Carrie Fisher – Princess Leia, Star Wars

You can’t talk about the late great Carrie Fisher and her career without mentioning Princess Leia and the Star Wars movies. She inspired a whole generation as her intelligent, stubborn and empowering princess, and the five films she was a part of helped define sci-fi in film. 

Leonard Nimoy – Spock, Star Trek

Live long and prosper, my friend. Forever and always the legendary Leonard Nimoy will be known for originating the role of the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock in Star Trek. 

Christopher Reeve – Superman, Superman

Christopher Reeve’s legacy is rooted in him playing Superman in four films. Even the documentary that came out about his life in 2024 leans into his time playing Clark Kent, as it’s called Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. 

James Gandolfini – Tony Soprano, The Sopranos

The Sopranos is considered one of the greatest shows on television, and James Gandolfini’s performance as Tony Soprano is a major reason why. The actor won three Emmys for his performance in the series, and his name, face and voice are synonymous with the beloved HBO drama. 

Alicia Silverstone – Cher Horowitz, Clueless

When I think of Alicia Silverstone, I immediately think of Cher, because she is and always will be best known for her iconic performance in one of the best movies of the ‘90s, Clueless. 

Sigourney Weaver – Ellen Ripley, Alien

Sigourney Weaver changed the sci-fi game when she starred in Alien. Ellen Ripley is a magnificent and strong leading woman in this sci-fi horror flick, which in 1979, was not something we saw very often. 

Jim Parsons – Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory

“Bazinga!” Will always follow Jim Parsons, and that’s because of his tenure playing Sheldon Cooper in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The actor has four Emmys for playing the role, he starred in all 280 episodes of the comedy, and his character even inspired a spinoff, Young Sheldon, which came to an end in 2024 after its own seven-season run. 

Kit Harington – Jon Snow, Game of Thrones

The world was introduced to Kit Harington because of Game of Thrones, and he will always be remembered as the heroic Jon Snow. His role in the GOT cast was vital, and over the years, as we watched him battle it out at The Wall and work toward saving Westeros from winter, it was impossible not to fall for him. Now, while Harington has been in numerous other projects since then, it’s impossible not to think of him as this epic fantasy hero first. 

Emma Watson – Hermione Granger, Harry Potter

These days, Emma Watson doesn’t act anymore, and she’s killing with her gin company Renais. However, she’ll also always be remembered as a wonderful actress who brought life to the beloved witch Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films. 

The Entire Cast of Friends

Yes, the cast of Friends all went on to have successful careers after the NBC sitcom. However, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox are best known as Rachel, Ross, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Monica, and they always will be, because they’re the ones with a hit TV show. 

Ralph Macchio – Daniel LaRusso, The Karate Kid

After three Karate Kid movies, and six seasons of its highly successful spinoff Cobra Kai, you’d be silly not to think that Ralph Macchio will always be remembered for playing Daniel LaRusso. 

Linda Hamilton – Sarah Connor, The Terminator

Linda Hamilton played Sarah Connor in The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator: Dark Fate. She’s beloved for portraying the protagonist in this sci-fi franchise, and she’s synonymous with this series that she starred in alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Chris Hemsworth – Thor, Thor

While many Marvel actors have become synonymous with their characters, one who really stands out is Chris Hemsworth and Thor. Physically, the Australian actor perfectly embodies the God of Thunder, and throughout his time playing the character he added an unexpected sense of humor to the role – especially post-Thor: Ragnarok – that he’ll be remembered forever for. 

Kristen Stewart – Bella Swan, Twilight

Twilight, the debate about Team Edward vs. Team Jacob and Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan took over the zeitgeist between 2008-2012. To this day, while she’s gone on to star in incredible films like Spencer and Love Lies Bleeding, the role that made her a household name is one of the parts she’ll always be remembered for. 

Heath Ledger – The Joker, The Dark Knight

Heath Ledger is widely regarded as the best Joker, because of his commanding performance as the legendary Batman villain in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. This movie was also one of his last before his untimely death, and he won a posthumous Oscar for his incredible take on the infamous big bad. 

Millie Bobby Brown – Eleven, Stranger Things

Millie Bobby Brown has made quite a few successful films, like the Enola Holmes movies. However, it’s undeniable that the role that will define her career is Eleven in Stranger Things. She was only 12 when she started playing the mysterious super-powered human, and over the course of the show’s five-season run, both she and the ensemble of the Netflix series, have become pop culture icons because of the show. 

William Shatner – Captain Kirk, Star Trek

If you take a look at the four projects listed at the top of William Shatner’s IMDb page, all of them are Star Trek movies where he played Captain Kirk. The man starred in seven films and a long-running TV show as the beloved captain, so of course it’s what he’s best known for. 

Michael J. Fox – Marty McFly, Back to the Future

From Family Ties to Teen Wolf, Michael J. Fox and his shows and movies were ‘80s staples. However, there’s no denying that the project he’ll always be remembered for is Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future. To this day, the project is considered one of the best ‘80s movies, and Fox is still beloved for playing the charismatic, funny and heroic Marty McFly. 

Reese Witherspoon – Elle Woods, Legally Blonde 

In the over two decades since Legally Blonde’s release, so many have been inspired to pursue their dreams and wear lots and lots of pink. That’s because Elle Woods truly left an amazing mark on the zeitgeist, and it’s because of Reese Witherspoon’s heartfelt, funny and preppy performance as the incredible lawyer-in-training. 

As Elle Woods would say, “What like it’s hard” to create one of the best characters and movies of the 2000s? 

Jon Hamm – Don Draper, Mad Men

While Jon Hamm is a wicked comedic actor, and he’s starred in a myriad of fun movies, nothing will ever come close to Mad Men. For 92 episodes, Hamm led the Mad Men cast as Don Draper – which he took an Emmy home for in 2015 – and he’ll always be recognized for playing the charismatic creative director of Sterling Cooper.

Judy Garland – Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz is a film that has raised generations of kids since 1939, and it’s still a family classic. So, when you lead a beloved musical like that, as Judy Garland did, and it remains relevant and loved for over eight decades, obviously, the role you’ll always be known for is that one. 

David Tennant – The Doctor, Doctor Who

While everyone who has played the titular timelord on Doctor Who is known for that role specifically, David Tennant is a fan-favorite Doctor, and it’s single-handedly the project he’s best known for. While he’s dabbled in many other critically acclaimed projects, like Good Omens and Broadchurch, he is and always will be the beloved actor who graced our screens as the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors first and foremost. 

Anthony Hopkins – Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs

Silence of the Lambs is one of the greatest horror movies of all time, and it’s in part thanks to Anthony Hopkins' truly terrifying cannibal Hannibal Lecter. In fact, his character became so popular that it inspired three more movies and a TV show. 

Sarah Jessica Parker – Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City

I’m sure Carrie Bradshaw inspired many women to become writers, and I know she left many of us fantasizing about living out our lives in New York City. Sarah Jessica Parker truly slayed the role, and her own sense of style and charismatic personality meshed perfectly with Carrie. Along with playing the writer in the OG series Sex and the City, SJP has also portrayed her in two movies and the series And Just Like That. 

Emilia Clarke – Daenerys Targaryen, Game of Thrones 

Khaleesi, Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen, those are all the names Emilia Clarke’s dragon rider went by in Game of Thrones, and she gave an absolutely commanding performance as her. While her ending wasn’t what most wanted, there’s no denying how amazing it was to see Daenerys rise from a woman trying to survive to a powerful leader, and that’s because of how brilliant Clarke was in the role. 

Mark Hamill – Luke Skywalker, Star Wars

He was the face of the original trilogy, and you can’t think about Star Wars without thinking about Mark Hamill and Luke Skywalker. While the actor is well-known for other roles, especially in the world of voice acting, his most prominent part has to be this. 

Gal Gadot – Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman

Sadly, there aren’t many superhero movies led by women. However, luckily, we do have a few wonderful ones, and that includes Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. She played the beloved hero with so much grace, poise and strength, and she’ll 100% always be remembered for it. 

Obviously, while all these actors have played other prominent roles in well-known movies and shows, there’s no question that when we consider their legacies, these parts will be the first ones we think about. They’re that iconic, and we have these performers to thank for them. 

Linda Hamilton is an action icon who has starred in some of the best ‘80s movies and action movies, and she’s kept that reputation up for over four decades. Now, The Terminator star is getting ready to play a role in the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, proving once again, that she’s still got it. However, before taking a part in the Netflix smash hit, she was actually considering retirement and she explained why. 

With Stranger Things Season 5 in production and Resident Alien just finishing its run on the 2024 TV schedule, Linda Hamilton spoke with THR about her work as of late. While she’s clearly keeping busy, before she got the offer to work on Stranger Things, she was considering retirement, as she explained: 

That makes total sense. Linda Hamilton has been working consistently since the ‘80s, and starring in four Terminator movies (which she’s confirmed she is done playing Sarah Connor) along with many other wicked action movies is no small feat. As she said, the wear and tear moviemaking can have on someone is physically exhausting, and she wanted to be able to show up for the people in her life and be healthy. 

However, those thoughts of retirement were quickly put to rest when she got a call from Stranger Things as she recalled a phone call she had with her agent:

While she apparently wasn’t asked if she wanted to be part of the fight against Vecna and the Demogorgans, her agent just said yes, she was thrilled to take on the role. Even if she had gone through with retirement, she said she would have come out of it for the Duffer Brothers' beloved show:

Even though making massive action movies has taken a toll, as Linda Hamilton said, it’s all been worth it. Her legacy as Sarah Connor is seriously legendary, and her being in Stranger Things is ultra exciting, because it’ll be so fun to see her play into the ‘80s nostalgia while also showing us a new side of her. 

At the moment, we don’t know what role Linda Hamilton will be playing in Stranger Things. However, considering she was asked what her availability was for a 12-month period and she’s an action icon, I assume she’ll be playing a pivotal role in the final chapter of the beloved series. 

I know I’m happy Linda Hamilton didn’t go into retirement, and I can’t wait to use my Netflix subscription to watch her do what she does best and kick butt in the final season of Stranger Things. 

She played one of the greatest action movie heroes of all time, but will Linda Hamilton ever return to play Sarah Connor in the Terminator universe? The actress gave an update on the iconic character in a recent interview, and Terminator super-fans might not be happy with what they hear. 

Hamilton debuted the role in 1984's The Terminator, first appearing as a damsel in sci-fi distress as Arnold Schwarzenegger's cyborg assassin time-traveled from the future to kill Sarah and prevent her future son—who will lead the resistance movement against the machines—from being born. By 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day (which has some great behind-the-scenes facts and is the best Terminator movie, in our opinion), Sarah Connor is a gun-wielding vigilante trying to prevent the machines from rising and inciting a nuclear holocaust.

We last saw Hamilton as Sarah Connor onscreen in 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate, a direct sequel to T2 set 25 years after the events of that film and saw an older Sarah working with an aging T-800 (Schwarzenegger) and an enhanced super soldier (Mackenzie Davis) to hunt remaining Terminators and prevent Judgment Day. However, five years later, the actress has announced that she's officially saying "hasta la vista" to the role. Speaking to Business Insider, she said: 

Hamilton also took issue with Sarah Connor's icon status amongst movie fans, telling the outlet:

Linda Hamilton also revealed that it was often hard to grapple with how moviegoers viewed her, as a world-saving "warrior," compared to who she really is: 

However, just because we sadly won't see Linda Hamilton play Sarah Connor in a Terminator movie again, we'll still graciously get to see the actress kick butt onscreen in two fan-favorite sci-fi series.

First, Resident Alien Season 3 dropped new episodes on Wednesday, February 14, featuring Hamilton as the alien-hunting General Eleanor McCallister. And, of course, the 67-year-old actress will be joining the Strangers Things cast for the Netflix show's fifth and final season. Info on the season's storylines and on Hamilton's character are being closely guarded, but the star did recently divulge that appearing on the show gave her "imposter syndrome."

However, there's no imposter syndrome with Sarah Connor—you can catch Linda Hamilton as the sci-fi heroine in The Terminator, which is available to stream with a Max subscription. 

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things finally started production last month following the end of 2023’s writers and actor strikes which stalled production. While the details of what’s next for Hawkins and the Upside Down remain thin, we do know The Terminator’s Linda Hamilton is joining the Netflix series for its last hurrah. Amid all of this, the actress recently opened up about going from a fan of the series to being part of the cast. 

For the time being, we have no idea how Linda Hamilton will actually come into play in the next season of Stranger Things, but the actress did recently share her thoughts on joining the show. In her words: 

While speaking to Us Weekly this week, Linda Hamilton said she’s been following the Netflix series since it started and has truly fallen in love with it, as so many others with a Netflix subscription can also attest to. However, because she’s been so into the show, she felt a bit of imposter syndrome creep up when she joined in on the production. As she continued: 

If you don’t know what imposter syndrome is, it’s basically when someone feels like they are a fraud or doubt their own abilities in a circumstance despite their clear abilities to belong somewhere. Clearly, Linda Hamilton is perfect to be in Stranger Things, especially considering she is an ‘80s icon herself having starred in the Terminator movies alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, as she explained, because Stranger Things was such an important show to her already, she didn’t feel like she could just seamlessly fit in with the rest of the class. 

Plus, going on Stranger Things is going to come at the price of Linda Hamilton skipping out on the final season of the show, or so she says, because she typically doesn’t watch projects she is part of. All that being said, she also shared that she’s been “having a really good time” on the set of the series and remains “thrilled” to be part of the whole thing. 

Linda Hamilton also suggested that she wasn’t told how Stranger Things ends, but the scripts she has read have been “really good.” We can’t wait to see what the actress brings to the Netflix series and to learn how her mysterious character fits into the final season of the hit show. What do those Duffer Brothers have cooking up for us? 

There’s an old saying that states you should never meet your heroes, as conventional wisdom has suggested it’s one of the most upsetting moments a fan can experience. However, like any good adage worth its salt, that phrase has been dismantled and disproven quite a bit. With that in mind, I love how excited Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff was to meet sci-fi movie icon Linda Hamilton, and how far it goes to proving why you should meet your heroes. 

Sackhoff herself enthusiastically agreed with that point, in a heartfelt social media post showing off this beautiful photo. Take a look at that time Sarah Connor met Starbuck at the FanExpo New Orleans convention, along with Katee Sackhoff’s sweet message explaining why this is so awesome, below: 

Seriously, how does one not derive joy from those times Katee Sackhoff’s inner “frakking weirdo” gets to shine? Watching her hang out on convention floors and making Mandalorian puns while hanging out in a DeLorean is just one of the qualities that makes Sackhoff so much fun to follow. And now that she’s met Linda Hamilton, that happiness has only seemed to grow. 

Even Sackhoff's hashtag, “#musclesarebeautiful,” is a beautiful tribute to the inspiration that Hamilton’s Terminator 2 performance gave her as a child. That only makes the story about that time Linda Hamilton surprised Arnold Schwarzenegger with her muscles at the beginning of shooting James Cameron’s legendary film all the more rewarding.

Katee Sackhoff's post also mentions Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley; as for whether or not she would ever be able to work with either of her idols, there’s still a chance it could happen. With Weaver still active in the Avatar franchise, and Hamilton cast in Stranger Things Season 5, both icons are still making a name for themselves in pop culture. 

All that has to happen is for the right project to come along, and for the representatives of Katee Sackhoff, Linda Hamilton, and Sigourney Weaver to get together to land the deal. Katee’s pure joy in meeting Linda feels like proof that this absolutely needs to happen. Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese were right to teach us all that there's no fate but what we make for ourselves! Provided, of course, scheduling and other considerations align to allow fate the easiest window of opportunity to seize.

In the meantime, you’re probably hoping to do what Katee Sackhoff may have done after meeting Linda Hamilton, which is watch Terminator 2: Judgement Day all over again. That’s perfectly natural, and if you’re looking to catch one of the best action movies, you only need a Netflix subscription to do just that. You can also see Sackhoff in the sci-fi sphere with The Mandalorian streaming via a Disney+ subscription now! Sadly, Battlestar Galactica is no longer streaming on Peacock.

While there isn’t a lot we know about Stranger Things Season 5 right given how far off it is from release, arguably the biggest piece of news yet was shared in June. It was announced at the streamer’s Tudum event that Terminator alum Linda Hamilton has been added to the cast of the popular Netflix show’s final outing. This means we’ll likely see her performing opposite David Harbour, who explained why he was “surprised” by Hamilton’s casting announcement.

To be clear, Harbour has nothing against Hamilton joining Stranger Things. Rather, as he laid out while speaking with NME, he was perplexed by the decision to reveal her involvement a little over a month after the 2023 Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike began, which has resulted in Season 5’s filming being delayed. As the Jim Hopper actor explained:

At the time of this writing, the current writers strike is not only still going and has surpassed the length of the one that happened from late 2007 to early 2008 (which lasted 100 days), there’s also the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, which revolves around Hollywood’s actors. So that’s two major labor disputes that’s holding up numerous major projects, including Stranger Things Season 5. While only the writers strike was happening when Linda Hamilton was announced for the final season, Harbour nonetheless found it strange that this news was shared with the public before the WGA members reached a new deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

It remains to be seen when Stranger Things Season 5 will finally start rolling cameras, and depending on how much longer the wait is, it’s entirely possible that Linda Hamilton may end up bowing out due to scheduling conflicts or some other issue. For now though, she remains on board, though who she’ll be playing remains shrouded in mystery. While David Harbour obviously didn’t disclose any character details, he did say that the “sprint to the finish line” with this final season is “exciting and almost euphoric” to him.

Of course, as indicated earlier, Hamilton is best known for playing Sarah Connor in the Terminator saga, having led the first two movies, vocally cameoed in Terminator Salvation and then returned to the role for 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate. However, that latter movie failed to impress at the box office, which the actress believes may have killed the franchise, though she had “no desire” to continue with it anyway. Hamilton’s other recent credits include recurring roles on the TV shows Resident Alien and Claws, but it’s probably safe to say that Stranger Things is her biggest project yet post-Dark Fate.

As soon as more information about Linda Hamilton’s participation in Stranger Things is announced, we’ll let you know. Meanwhile, Netflix subscribers can easily rewatch the show’s first four seasons to their heart’s content, check out the other best shows to binge watch on Netflix right now or learn what else is coming to the platform by reading through the Netflix TV schedule.

A sci-fi legend is making her way to Hawkins, and I don't think we're ready for her. As the cast and crew prepare for Stranger Things' fifth and final season, it was announced at Tudum, by Arnold Schwarzenegger of all people, that Terminator legend Linda Hamilton will be joining the cast. 

Using an edgy upsidedown Polaroid to share the news, Netflix posted about this "code red" announcement: 

Making the announcement even more special, Schwarzenegger shared a video with the Tudum audience in Brazil from Linda Hamilton herself. The actress appeared on the screen, saying she was excited to share this news, explaining:

She noted that she and Schwarzenegger should get dinner together soon, and then told the rest of us that she’ll “see [us] in Hawkins.”

I think it’s safe to say that we’re all ready to see this legend in Hawkins! We’ve come to know and love Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, and she’s not just an ‘80s icon, but an action legend. Now, that nostalgia and adoration surrounding this actress and her beloved franchise is making me all the more excited for Season 5 of Stranger Things.

Poking around the comments of the exciting announcement, fans are hypothesizing that this badass action star might be playing a government agent after Eleven or maybe Steve or Eddie’s mother. All of these are great options, and no matter what, I’m positive Linda Hamilton is going to be a fantastic addition to the series.

While she won’t be fighting the Terminator in Stranger Things she will likely be facing the Demogorgons and the show’s big bad Vecna in Season 5 alongside the rest of the cast. We all know what she’s capable of, so I hope those action skills are put to use in the Netflix hit.

With each season of Stranger Things, new characters have been introduced (I mean just look at the 15 new cast members from Season 4), and every once in a while we get a true movie icon joining the mix. In Season 1 that was obviously Winona Ryder, who has been a mainstay since Episode 1. Then, in Season 2, Lord of the Rings legend and The Goonies star Sean Astin joined the crew as the lovable Bob. Plus, Matthew Modine, whose known for projects like Full Metal Jacket and Vision Quest, has also been a constant in the cast by playing Dr. Brenner. 

So, Linda Hamilton is joining a list of iconic older actors as well as an ensemble of younger performers who have become household names through Stranger Things. 

This Netflix genre hit has cemented itself as one of the most popular shows around, and adding ‘80s icons into the mix only makes it more legendary. We here at CinemaBlend cannot wait to see how Linda Hamilton fits into the world of Netflix’s sci-fi smash, but we’ll have to wait a while to see it. 

So, in the meantime, you can stream Seasons 1 through 4 of Stranger Things with a Netflix subscription, and you can catch Linda Hamilton as the iconic Sarah Connor in The Terminator with a Max subscription. 

There are so many stories about how James Cameron’s The Terminator got made that it’s almost hard to find something new that people haven’t already heard. The same could be said about its epic sequel, one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, the legendary action movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as the 1991 follow-up is one of those rare cases where the successor blew away its wildly popular forebearer. However, a new Netflix series has provided some fresh perspective on both films, showcasing how both Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger surprised their acting partner in pretty huge ways while making both movies. 

How Arnold Schwarzenegger Surprised Linda Hamilton On The Terminator

During the second episode of the Netflix docu-series Arnold, Schwarzenegger’s journey into acting is described in great detail. A huge part of that story is, of course, his casting in The Terminator, a movie in which he was originally considered to play Kyle Reese against a potential T-800 played by O.J. Simpson. 

History saw a much different result take place, which put Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role of the cybernetic killing machine from the future. To him, it was a pretty big leap forward for his acting career. But to Linda Hamilton, the role of Sarah Connor was as unassuming as her new co-star. Here’s how Hamilton was surprised by The Terminator, with the help of Schwarzenegger’s performance:

The Terminator would go on to become a massive hit and influence sci-fi movies to come for decades. Part of this was due to the fact that Schwarzenegger's portrayal of the titular killer was as harrowing and convincing as Hamilton had said.

In the more immediate aftermath of the 1984 smash success, a sequel would find its way into theaters eight years later. Upon its arrival in theaters, Terminator 2: Judgment Day would blow moviegoers minds with the twists it would introduce into the saga.

Meanwhile, it would be Arnold Schwarzenegger’s turn to be surprised when it came time to make the next chapter of Terminator lore. As it turned out, James Cameron was holding back a surprise involving Linda Hamilton and her transformation for the return as Sarah Connor. 

The Terminator 2 Dinner Where Linda Hamilton Make Arnold Schwarzenegger Jealous

At the end of The Terminator, it’s teased that the now-pregnant Sarah Connor isn’t the same sweet and innocent waitress we saw at the beginning of her fateful night from hell. Terminator 2 only confirmed that assumption, as Linda Hamilton’s character was now a no-nonsense soldier with weapons training and a jacked physique. 

Before audiences would even catch wind of that twist, James Cameron got to shock Arnold Schwarzenegger with that reveal in a more intimate setting. Here’s how Schwarzenegger revealed his reaction, including a hilarious streak of jealousy:

That bodybuilder figure was the result of some insane training on Linda Hamilton's part. Behind-the-scenes trivia for Terminator 2: Judgment Day revealed that the franchise stalwart had actually trained with a former Israeli soldier as part of her preparation. So naturally, with that intense of a regimen, there was going to be some very physical work that had to come with it. 

The end result was Sarah Connor becoming one of the greatest female action characters of all time. What's even better is the fact that Hamilton made quite the admission of pride during her part of the Arnold documentary, which is now available to anyone with a Netflix subscription. In short, but sweet fashion, Ms. Hamilton smiled and expressed as much with the following statement:

The rest, as they say, is history. Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger would later re-team for 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate, a picture that proved just how cut out both actors were for their iconic roles. Without those surprises in the earlier days of the series, who knows how history would have panned out for James Cameron’s creation? All anyone knows is that no matter what people say about the sequels past Terminator 2, that first two movies were iconic beyond measure. 

Filmmaker James Cameron has a resume that speaks for itself, including various projects that have remained beloved aspects of pop culture. While this includes Titanic and Avatar, there’s also his truly iconic work with the Terminator franchise. Cameron recently explained what went wrong with the latest sequel Dark Fate, and where his friendship with director Tim Miller stands. Let’s break it all down.

Terminator: Dark Fate was released in November of 2019, and a ton of hype surround in the project thanks to the long-awaited return of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. Despite some strong reviews, the movie was ultimately a box office bomb that squashed plans for a sequel. There were reports of Tim Miller and James Cameron clashing over the movie’s story, and the latter director recently spoke to Deadline regarding his feelings about both his colleague and the movie itself. He shared,

There you have it. It looks like James Cameron has a good perspective on the Terminator: Dark Fate shake-ups with Tim Miller. And despite how it ultimately performed at the box office, he maintains that he’s happy with both the movie’s contents, and where his friendship is with Tim Miller. Although the Avatar visionary does have some ideas as to what went wrong with the most recent dip into the Terminator franchise.

James Cameron’s comments about Terminator: Dark Fate come as he’s promoting the impending release of Avatar: The Way of Water. Clearly he’s got experience woking on long-awaited sequels, and his return to Pandora is expected to make an insane amount of money. This wasn’t the case for Tim Miller’s Terminator movie, with Cameron opened up about what went wrong. To him part of it came down to casting, as he put it,

I’m going to have to side with James Cameron on this one. Terminator movies just aren’t the same without Arnold Schwarzenegger, which we saw in Salvation. Although it looks like his inclusion in Dark Fate was a point of contention during the movie’s development. And that wasn’t the only possibly issue that came with bringing in the OG’s for this new installment.

Later in that same interview, James Cameron revealed how he thinks the inclusion of Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor changed the course of Terminator: Dark Fate. Despite excitement from the hardcore fandom, Cameron seems to think that seeing the two OG’s once again on the big screen actually worked against its box office appeal. As he put it,

In the end Terminator: Dark Fate made $261 million on a budget of around $196 million, going down as one of the worst box office bombs of all time. It stands in juxtaposition to James Cameron’s penchant for breaking box office records with projects like Titanic and Avatar. And he’s expected to strike gold again with The Way of Water.

James Cameron does seem to stand by the actual end results of Terminator: Dark Fate as a movie. There were some truly thrilling action sequence, as well as an unbelievable cold open featuring the death of John Connor. And unsurprisingly Linda Hamilton absolutely hit out of the park with her beloved signature character.

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters on December 16th. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your trips to the theater in the New Year. We’ll just have to wait and see if James Cameron’s latest blockbuster beats its predecessor and becoms the new highest grossing movie of all time. 

Needless to say that one of the big ways that Terminator: Dark Fate stood out from the other post-Terminator 2: Judgement Day movies was by Linda Hamilton returning to play Sarah Connor. It was the first time Hamilton had appeared onscreen as the character in nearly 30 years, and she wasn’t afraid to express disapproval of the Dark Fate script if necessary. When recently asked if she had to “speak up and advocate” for some of the elements of Sarah that she was most invested in, Hamilton responded:

Obviously it’s best to have a film script finished before principal photography begins, but occasionally there are productions where words are still being put on pages while the cameras are rolling. Not one to mince words, Linda Hamilton made sure the right parties on set were aware if there were portions of the Terminator: Dark Fate script that didn’t work, as she was determined to ensure that the story flowed as smoothly and logically as possible.

Linda Hamilton added in her interview with The AV Club that some of Sarah Connor must have “spilled over” into her actual personality, because while she’s usually “simple” about her work and “not results-oriented,” she’s “very invested” in Sarah. So when there were moments when she felt like Sarah was saying or acting in a way that wasn’t organic, she chimed and made sure folks knew that this is not how her character would behave.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Linda Hamilton having issues with the Terminator: Dark Fate script. Last summer, she mentioned how there were a few times she wouldn’t say specific lines of dialogue because they were “stupid,” and she also disagreed with director Tim Miller’s initial approach with wanting to make Sarah Connor “relatable.”

Overall though, it sounds like Linda Hamilton enjoyed her time working on Terminator: Dark Fate, previously calling it the “hardest and greatest thing” she’s ever done. And while she was initially hesitant to see the movie not because of a perceived lack of quality, but because she doesn’t like watching herself perform, she decided to take in Dark Fate to support everyone else who worked on it.

Although Terminator: Dark Fate earned better critical reception overall than the previous two Terminator movies, it underperformed commercially, making only around $261 million worldwide off a budget in the $185-$196 million range. Linda Hamilton believes that it’ll be the box office that kills the Terminator franchise, but even if that wasn’t the case, she has no desire to stick around, making Dark Fate her swan song as Sarah Connor.

Terminator: Dark Fate is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital. Be sure to look through our 2020 release schedule to learn what movies are arriving in theaters later this year.

Among the reasons that Terminator: Dark Fate was a big deal for the franchise was because it marked the return of Linda Hamilton, who hadn’t appeared onscreen as Sarah Connor in nearly 30 years. But just because Hamilton decided to return for another Terminator go-around doesn’t mean she was eager to watch the movie herself. It wasn’t because she wasn’t confident in the movie’s quality, but rather an aversion to watching herself perform. As Hamilton explained:

Linda Hamilton certainly isn’t the only actor who doesn’t like watching/listening to themselves on screen. For example, Adam Driver counts himself among the bunch, to the point that he walked out of an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air several months back because a clip of him from Marriage Story was played. So naturally Hamilton’s first instinct was not not watch Terminator: Dark Fate. Performing in a movie is one thing, but sitting down to watch the completed product does not all within the actress’ comfort zone.

However, as Linda Hamilton laid out to The AV Club, it was ultimately more important for her to support for the other people who had worked on Terminator: Dark Fate, particularly director Tim Miller and co-stars Mackenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes. No doubt that bullhorn prodding from Miller during shooting helped push her in the right direction, so Hamilton was willing to sit down and watch Dark Fate once. But if you want her to check out the latest Terminator film a second time, you’re almost certainly out of luck.

The fact that Linda Hamilton even appeared in Terminator: Dark Fate is a major accomplishment, as Tim Miller noted that it was difficult to get her to reprise Sarah Connor. Ultimately it was James Cameron who convinced her to come aboard Dark Fate, though that only happened after he called her three times and she thought about it for six weeks.

Warning: SPOILERS for Terminator: Dark Fate are ahead!

Released a little over four years after Terminator Genisys, Terminator: Dark Fate served as a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgement Day and ignored the events of the immediate three movies that preceded it. In this continuity, Sarah Connor’s son, John Connor, was killed three years after T2 by a T-800, resulting in her dedicating the next decades to hunting down Terminators and succumbing to alcoholism. If Linda Hamilton had her way, the older Sarah also would have been fat to provide “shock value.”

By the end of Terminator: Dark Fate, Sarah Connor was still kicking and was now dedicated to training Natalia Reyes’ Dani to be ready for the rise of Legion and to avert the death of Mackenzie Davis’ Grace. While that would seemingly set up Sarah to continue being an important player in the Terminator franchise, ahead of Dark Fate’s release, Hamilton jokingly said that she was threatening to fake her own death if asked to return because the movie was “the hardest and greatest thing” she’d ever done.

While Terminator: Dark Fate received mixed-to-positive reactions during its time in theaters, it underwhelmed commercially, making only $261 million worldwide. So it doesn’t look like Dark Fate will get a sequel, and Linda Hamilton believes that box office will be the thing that “killed” the Terminator franchise. Since she now has “no desire” to continue with this corner of her career, Dark Fate serves as her Terminator swan song.

Terminator: Dark Fate is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital. We here at CinemaBlend will keep you apprised of any major updates concerning the Terminator franchise, and be sure to look through our 2020 release schedule to plan your trips to the theater this year accordingly.

As far as science fiction franchises go, there are few quite as beloved as The Terminator. James Cameron's original pair of movies were a pop culture phenomenon, and it's never been truly far from theaters since. Overall there have been a whopping six Terminator movies, including Tim Miller's most recent outing Dark Fate. The blockbuster saw the return of Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor, and the iconic actress recently defended the movie's big John twist.

Terminator: Dark Fate opened with a bang, with a flashback to Sarah and John in 1998, just a few years after the events of Terminator 2. A T-800 appears and takes John out, sent from a future that never happened. Linda Hamilton recently spoke to that sequence, and the handling of John's story (or lack thereof). As she put it,

Well, that's really does make sense. If John was alive, Sarah probably never would have joined the conflict in Terminator: Dark Fate. The two would be living away from danger, after surviving their ordeal and avoiding Judgement Day.

Linda Hamilton's comments to THR show how much the actress knows and cares about Sarah Connor. It's no doubt her most iconic role, and she's always been vocal about Sarah's journey throughout the years. Ultimately John's death is the catalyst that set Sarah's story forward, and began her decades of isolation and hunting Terminators.

Sarah was unable to save John during the opening sequence of Terminator: Dark Fate. She let her guard down, as they assumed they were safe after stopping Judgement Day from becoming a reality. But Skynet had sent more than on T-800 back to get the job. Finding and killing them became Sarah's sole purpose, at least until Dark Fate happened and forced her to reconcile with Carl.

Terminator: Dark Fate is available On Demand and on DVD/Blu-ray. Be sure to check out our 2020 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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As we come to the what feels like, but isn't officially considered the close of the Terminator series, Linda Hamilton has told some pretty awesome stories about why she decided to return for Terminator: Dark Fate. But perhaps the best, and funniest, story about Sarah Connor’s return to the land of the living is that one of the concepts Hamilton really wanted to tackle was that of a fat Sarah, if only to shock the audience.

I recently interviewed Linda Hamilton to commemorate the home video release of Terminator: Dark Fate, and the woman who made Sarah Connor a sci-fi icon revealed to me that she was looking for an aspect to her return, with this particular intent in mind:

The image of an out of shape Sarah Connor strolling in to save the day in the same killer action sequence that saw her rescue Natalia Reyes’ Dani Ramos and Mackenzie Davis’ Grace could have been more interesting than the simple sight gag it would obviously inspire. In fact, it could have been something amazing and cathartic.

Warning: spoilers for Terminator: Dark Fate are now in play.

With John Connor’s surprising death causing a massive shift in the timeline, as well as a huge amount of grief in Sarah’s life, Terminator: Dark Fate showed us a more vulnerable side of the woman who had previously transformed from a carefree waitress to the ultimate doomsday prepper.

So just as we saw her transform between the first two installments of the Terminator saga, the revelation that Sarah Connor hadn’t really been taking care of herself between 1998 and 2019 would have made her jaw-dropping return all the more shocking. Which is exactly what Linda Hamilton wanted to give the audience when she decided to come back in the first place.

Though she wasn’t able to climb into a fat suit and get a training montage in during the events of Terminator: Dark Fate, Linda Hamilton did get to shock the audience when she was announced as coming back to the franchise for the first time since Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

Further explaining her motivations behind this latest performance in the role she made so memorable, there are two specific words that Linda Hamilton wanted to inspire moviegoers to say in response to her cinematic presence:

Armed with the mantra of “Holy fuck!” as the reaction she wanted to bring into the world when she stepped into frame in Terminator: Dark Fate, Linda Hamilton has been candidly honest about being finished with the role of Sarah Connor. At this point in time, there just doesn’t seem to be any “Holy Fuck” moments left to shock the audience, and in turn, Linda’s interest in providing such a reaction. Even with those facts in mind, she also hasn’t totally written off a potential follow-up.

As she told me earlier in this same interview, should the right opportunity come along for Sarah Connor to continue her Terminator adventure, Linda Hamilton would be potentially game to come back once again. But as established above, it has to be something that really grabs her attention, as well as the audience's. Otherwise, it just feels like an ornamental exercise in diminished returns.

The box office results of Terminator: Dark Fate’s theatrical release late last year leave any chance of another installment very much in question. Then again, the status of the James Cameron-created series has been previously scrutinized in a similar fashion, and just when the world was ready to give up, a new set of producers would saddle up to bring the fight to Skynet/Legion once again.

It’s that sort of tenacious life blood that has me wondering that if there was going to be another mission to prevent the apocalyptic battle between humans, why shouldn't the gatekeepers of that potential story allow “Fat” Sarah Connor to bring Linda Hamilton along for the ride. Thinking back on the ending to Terminator: Dark Fate, an opportunity to do just that may have actually presented itself in the final moments of director Tim Miller's would-be trilogy starter.

As Dani is now supposed to be the savior of humanity, and the burden is lightened to a certain degree on Sarah’s shoulders, maybe she does decide to take it easy and start enjoying herself through the junk food she's obviously denied herself in the past. Of course, if we’re talking about a hypothetical sequel to Terminator: Dark Fate, it wouldn’t be long before evil started knocking on the door of our heroes, which would mean that Sarah Connor would need to get back into fighting form, or adjust her tactics to suit her new physique.

It’d truly be enough to make any Terminator fan say “Holy fuck!” to see the overall hero of the historic sci-fi franchise in another unexpected physical transformation. After seeing Sarah the Waitress, Sarah the Warrior and Sarah the Vulnerable Warrior, whatever you would name this new phase of Sarah Connor’s life plan is enough of a change to be a stunning surprise.

For now, Terminator: Dark Fate could be the resolution of franchise history, complete with a new and exciting arc for Sarah to close her personal adventure out with. But if there are plenty who are keeping hope alive for another round of mayhem, so maybe it's a good time to start drawing up some concept art and fitting Linda Hamilton for a prosthetic suit; just in case.

Meanwhile, you can currently enjoy the home video release of Terminator: Dark Fate, as the film is now available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD.

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Through the course of 35 years and six films, the Terminator franchise has been on again and off again at the multiplex. With last year’s Terminator: Dark Fate attempting to start a new path for the trilogy, but note seeing the highest numbers at the box office, it looks like the series is about to go into hibernation again. Franchise legend, and Sarah Connor herself, Linda Hamilton happens to subscribe to that particular theory herself.

While speaking with her during the press rounds for Terminator: Dark Fate’s home video release, I had to ask if the film’s rather open-ended finale meant that we’d potentially see Sarah Connor fighting the good fight against the machines in another film. Hamilton not only confirmed once again that she isn’t looking to return to her landmark role, but thanks to the response to the last film, the series itself probably won’t be back:

While that comment might feel blunt, considering that Terminator Genisys’ worldwide grosses of $440.6 million were seen as a disappointing result for the franchise, the $261.1 million haul that Terminator: Dark Fate made on the open market does indeed feel like a blow to James Cameron’s legendary sci-fi property. Even though the new movie spent time hyping up the return of Linda Hamilton, an actor who hadn’t appeared in the franchise flesh since 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, it didn't translate to bodies in the seats.

On paper, James Cameron being able to convince Hamilton to revive Sarah Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate felt like the sort of decision that’d win even the most die-hard fans of the classic films back to the table. Even in the face of good critical reviews, director Tim Miller’s film couldn’t convert that professional goodwill into enough buzz to likely excite the studio for another movie, although only time will tell whether or not Terminator: Dark Fate will ultimately hit with the fanbase.

On the subject of fandom, it’s interesting to note that the film did score a Rotten Tomatoes’ verified audience score of 82%, with almost 13,000 votes in the count. Of course, that’s a very limited sample when it comes to moviegoers overall, so the total picture of Terminator: Dark Fate’s fan reaction is definitely complicated. People like the dang movie, but that's probably not enough to justify more.

With hopes seemingly dashed for another Terminator sequel, and even with Linda Hamilton’s insistence that she doesn’t want to bring Sarah Connor back again, hope still springs eternal. As the fandom hasn’t really latched onto a sequel as warmly as they did with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, it’s still sort of a miracle that there have been four follow-ups after that particular point.

Not to mention, if it wasn’t for Terminator: Salvation’s impact on the franchise, we would have seen the first complete trilogy in series history. Even in the face of such decision making and the varied response to whatever new twists and turns the films have taken, Terminator movies have happened at fairly reliable intervals. And it’s all because the brand itself still maintains its classic appeal.

So while Terminator: Dark Fate’s embodiment of its title feels like it’s closed the book on any future installments, be they direct continuations or more tangents in the already fractured timeline, this is a batch of movies that feel as tenacious as the villains that occupy them. Surprisingly enough that tenacity could potentially win Linda Hamilton back into another potential performance as Sarah Connor, though by her own admission it would be under the following strict guidelines:

As a professional, and a Terminator fan, I couldn’t agree more with Linda Hamilton’s specifications for a potential return to the fold. Seeing Sarah back in the game for Terminator: Dark Fate was something extremely special, and bringing her back for the potential seventh film in the Terminator series would really need to be an event worthy of happening.

That same approach is something any creative team looking to take a spin in the Terminator universe should also keep in mind. It feels like it’d be easy to create a serviceable sequel or reboot to this series of events, but unless there’s a particularly good idea that can kick the can of Armageddon down the road rather effectively, there’s always a risk of those diminishing returns.

Warning: Mild spoilers for Terminator: Dark Fate are now in play.

In all fairness, Terminator: Dark Fate did have a pretty good idea for how to pursue such an enterprise, with the death of John Connor altering the landscape of the Terminator story, and Sarah’s character, significantly. But ideas like those don’t always grow on trees, so unless the rest of that potential trilogy James Cameron was teasing has a cracker of an idea at its heart, we’re probably not going to see Sarah Connor onscreen ever again.

The upside to that particular scenario is that for fans longing to see a proper conclusion to Sarah’s story, Terminator: Dark Fate actually delivered in that regard. Her character’s arc sees her becoming a mentor for Natalia Reyes’ Dani, and the future of humanity is on the course to being saved. Even her rivalry with Carl, the T-800 that killed her son is resolved, as Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s characters bonded together to save the new savior of humanity from the threat she faced.

If the Terminator series is now dead and buried, it could go out under worse circumstances. With critical praise and the fandom’s positive reaction carrying Terminator: Dark Fate into the history books, the rest of Sarah Connor’s mysterious fate is nothing but what the fans will make it out to be. The box office may have tanked, but Linda Hamilton’s gift of returning for the fans is something that’ll always be treasured, as it should be.

Terminator: Dark Fate is now available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD; ready to be added to your collection of preferred entries in the Terminator franchise.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Terminator: Dark Fate. If you have not yet seen the film, read on at your own risk!

Tim Miller’s Terminator: Dark Fate is built in many ways to echo the story of the original film from 1984, with two time travelers – one good, and one evil – going to the past to try and respectively save and kill the future savior of humanity. Within that, though, there are two major ways that the new movie differs, and they are in the roles played by Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 a.k.a. Carl.

Through events that occur in the plot, the two characters interestingly switch mindsets: Sarah has basically become a single-minded Terminator of Terminators, and Carl is essentially as human as a T-800 can become. It’s one of the most fascinating aspects of Terminator: Dark Fate, so I felt compelled to bring it up when I sat down with Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger late last month during the film’s Los Angeles press day:

The big personality switch in the movie stems from a flashback featured in the early minutes of Terminator: Dark Fate, which notably features the death of Edward Furlong’s John Connor at the hands of an original T-800 sent back in time by Skynet before Sarah Connor was able to change the future. This action effectively robbed both Sarah and the T-800 of their purposes on Earth, with the former dedicated to protecting her child, and the latter having completed his single mission.

That T-800 became “Carl,” dedicated family man and curtain salesman, and Sarah dedicated her life to destroying Terminators (unknowingly getting Carl’s help to do so). It presents new lights for both of the character’s within the legacy of the franchise, and as I learned from Linda Hamilton, that was something that particularly excited her about Terminator: Dark Fate. Said the actor,

When reflecting on who Sarah Connor was when we first met her in the original Terminator, it is pretty crazy to see how much she’s changed. Fans will remember that she was introduced as an innocent, fun-loving iguana owner back in the mid-1980s, and then was re-introduced as a warrior against the apocalypse deemed psychotic by society in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. What’s featured in Terminator: Dark Fate is yet another evolution.

Speaking of evolution, that was the exact terminology used by Arnold Schwarzenegger when discussing this new take on the T-800. As the interview took place prior to the release of the new film, he was hesitant to get too in-depth about spoilers, but he explained how it was a development in the new movie he definitely appreciated:

Terminator: Dark Fate, which co-stars Gabriel Luna, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, and Diego Boneta, is now playing in theaters everywhere, and to see what else is up ahead for 2019 cinema-wise, be sure to check out our 2019 Release Calendar.

A very big deal has been made out of how Terminator: Dark Fate is Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton’s first time working together since 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day – but not to be forgotten is the other person who was instrumental in the return of this franchise: writer/producer James Cameron.

Given that Cameron left the Terminator franchise before the making of the last three titles, the reunion between the killer robot movies and the blockbuster, Oscar-winning director is definitely exciting. But what kind of impact did he really have on the making of Terminator: Dark Fate? That was a question I posed to the stars of the movie at the new film’s recent Los Angeles press day, and you can watch their responses clicking play on the video below:

Similar to his role in the making of Alita: Battle Angel prior to its release earlier this year, James Cameron didn’t actually spend any real time on the set of Terminator: Dark Fate, but he was an instrumental force both in terms of getting the film made, and getting it made with a specific vision in mind. Curious about his impact on set, I asked Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Gabriel Luna about the influence Cameron had, and they made it clear that it was significant.

In Linda Hamilton’s case, for example, she attributes her whole entire involvement with the project being because of James Cameron’s presence, not to mention his massive contributions in terms of figuring out who Sarah Connor was going to be at the start of this new story. Discussing the writer/producer’s larger part with the Terminator: Dark Fate production, she explained,

Arnold Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, was in a different position, having been a significant part of two of the last three James Cameron-less Terminator releases. All the same, he gives James Cameron all of the credit in the world for the making of the latest chapter, as he noted that Dark Fate probably wouldn’t have come together if it weren’t for his key suggestions and input:

As noted by Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Cameron hasn’t exactly just been sitting on his hands recently, as he’s been extremely busy putting together not just one Avatar sequel, but multiple releases that are set to come out over the next six years. That certainly contributed to his more hands-off approach during the production of Terminator: Dark Fate (along with wanting to give director Tim Miller creative space), but as the star explained, there is no questioning his significant role in the making of the new blockbuster.

Very much echoing ideas and themes from the original Terminator movies, Terminator: Dark Fate is certainly a film that carries the artistic power of James Cameron in its soul – and the time has almost come for you to see it yourself. Following its release abroad earlier this month, the new feature is now hitting theaters in the states, and will be available everywhere starting on Friday. Check it out, and be on the lookout for more from my interviews with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Gabriel Luna, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, and Tim Miller here on CinemaBlend.

While the title of James Cameron’s franchise may be Terminator and Arnold Schwartznegger’s “I’ll be back” or “Hasta la vista” lines always come to mind first, isn’t Sarah Connor is true icon of the series? I mean, killer machines can chase humans on movie screens all the livelong day, but Linda Hamilton’s character made us care why. Sarah is the access point to the franchise that has always held importance in the franchise’s impending post-apocalyptic future that must be stopped. And let’s face it – when she hasn’t been central to the Terminator story the storyline has suffered... I'm looking at you, Terminator Salvation.

Now Terminator: Dark Fate marks the triumphant return of Linda Hamilton as her legendary character She’s been away for almost 30 years, brought on by James Cameron returning to the creative side of the franchise for the first time since Judgement Day. The original Sarah Connor is back in action and looks to be more badass than ever. As fans gear up to soon be reunited with her, let’s take a look through the character’s incredible evolution over the years in the Terminator movies:

Damsel-In-Distress Sarah Connor

Looking back, Sarah Connor had some humble beginnings in the original Terminator film. And what’s great is this doesn’t knock her character one bit – in fact it deepens it and makes her even more interesting and grounded in reality. When we first meet the Terminator leading lady, she’s a typical Los Angeles woman of the ‘80s. Sarah Connor is a young and unassuming waitress who needs saving when Arnold’s Terminator unexpectedly comes after to prevent the birth of her future son, who will lead the resistance against the machines in the future.

The quiet genius of Sarah Connor is she was a character ahead of her time. Her type of strong character is often cheapened with today’s female heroines – as they often introduced as characters already locked and loaded with incredible ability from the get-go. Why would Sarah already be prepared to be hunted down by a cyborg assassin from the future when we meet her? There’s no logical reason for it. It’s when becomes suddenly immersed in the world of the movie and with the help of Kyle Reese that she evolves into a fighter in her own right. The character goes through complete trauma during the runtime of The Terminator as she runs for her life, falls in love with Reese and by the end accepts her fate in the timeline as Kyle dies and she becomes pregnant with John Connor. Her arc is actually pretty perfect.

Locked-And-Loaded Sarah Connor

When Linda Hamilton was asked to return to her Terminator character for the second film after the monumental success of the first movie, she told James Cameron she didn’t want to play the same waitress Sarah Connor. She told him: “I want to be crazy”. And with the second film, audiences catch up with an institutionalized Connor, seemingly rambling of a future where robots take over the world and has been separated by a now 10-year-old John Connor. She clearly takes Kyle Reese’s warnings to heart and has transformed herself into a badass warrior. The actress underwent military and weapons handling training, becoming a completely transformed and muscled up version of Sarah Connor. Not to mention Hamilton came off giving birth herself just a couple weeks prior to the role.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day has her teaming up with a good-guy Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 to survive a more daunting version of Skynet technology, Robert Patrick’s T-1000. While the original Sarah Connor we met was driven by survival, this one is intensely motivated by protecting her son to no end. As an audience, it’s a shocking but incredibly rewarding to see her grow into this hardened warrior after the first film. She benefits from the humble beginnings as mentioned above in Terminator and becomes one of the most interesting sci-fi action heroes to match one of the best entries in the genre of all time.

Made-For-TV Sarah Connor

Sarah Connor’s peak moment on the big screen would be followed by a long drought for the character. Linda Hamilton was written out of the storyline for The Rise of the Machines, said to have died from cancer and James Cameron left the creative process of the movies. 2009’s Terminator Salvation would greatly leave Connor out of the equation as well. But someone got it, Sarah Connor is integral to the Terminator franchise and Fox decided to develop a spinoff series called Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles for television. Ahead of her iconic role in Game of Thrones as Cersei Lannister, Lena Headey was chosen for the role after the studio auditioned hundreds of actresses.

Similar to what Dark Fate does, The Sarah Connor Chronicles ignores the events of Rise of the Machines and imagines Connor’s life after Judgement Day. John Connor is a teenager and they have a new female Terminator on their side. The show unfortunately only lasted two seasons due to cancellation, despite fans best efforts to rally behind the continuation of the series. While Headey’s Connor was true to the character and further explored her life, it didn’t quite have the same staying-power as Linda Hamilton’s version. Perhaps because the relentless franchise was watered down by network guidelines, maybe it just didn’t have the same oomf as the movies?

Alternate Reality “Reboot” Sarah Connor

Interestingly enough, the next Sarah Connor would also be a Game of Thrones star with fan-favorite Daenerys Targaryen actress, Emilia Clarke. In 2015, Paramount attempted to revitalize the Terminator property with Terminator Genisys, a reboot of sorts that placed Sarah Connor in an alternate reality to set her apart from the original character. In this version, good-guy T-800 (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) comes into her life to protect her at the age of nine, making her an able fighter by the time Kyle Reese (played by Jai Courtney) comes to defend her against ‘80s T-800, played by a de-aged Schwarzenegger Terminator.

The movie is a hodge-podge of just about everything, as Sarah also meets an adult version of her son and falls in love with Kyle without her damsel-in-distress persona intact. Genisys tried a bit too hard to give fans everything they loved about the franchise that the creatives forgot what made it great. Clarke’s Sarah Connor falls into the automatic “strong female character” trope without being as grounded or interested as previous versions. Not Clarke’s fault – we know what she’s capable with via Daenerys.

The definitive Sarah Connor is unquestionably Linda Hamilton’s version in Judgement Day and she’ll be back in Dark Fate on November 1. What do you think of the changes made to the Terminator over the years? Sound off in the comments below!

Even if you've never seen the 1984 sci-fi classic The Terminator, there are probably at least a few things you know about the movie, because it is, after all, a very long-running franchise. For example, you likely know that the film features Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor running from a seemingly unstoppable machine, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. And, it's almost impossible that you've never heard the most quoted line from the movie, Schwarzenegger's menacing and heavily accented, "I'll be back." When Hamilton was given the job of saying that famous line for Terminator: Dark Fate, though, turns out it wasn't too easy.

In new footage from Terminator: Dark Fate, which brings James Cameron back to the franchise, we can see the scene where Linda Hamilton has to recite the classic and oft-quoted line that was famously said by her co-star in the original film. Hamilton appears to say it with ease during the clip, but it turns out that her comfort level with those particular words had to be achieved over many takes. Here's what she had to say about it:

Poor Linda Hamilton, right? I mean, I've said "I'll be back" like Arnold Schwarzenegger's deadly Terminator at least, oh, a million times since the movie came out, so it would be a hard thing to not imitate the actor, even when you're really trying to do it your way.

As Linda Hamilton noted in her words to Entertainment Tonight, though, it wasn't just "three decades of hearing it in your head with his voice" that led to her needing to redo the line on set. She wasn't asked to utter the famous phrase during a quiet scene after the characters had spent some time chatting and drinking cocktails. No, sir. It comes after an intense outdoor action sequence with a lot of moving parts which was, apparently, filmed while the temperatures reached into the triple digits. So, yeah, there was a lot going on that kept Hamilton from being able to focus on making the line her own.

In addition to all the years that Linda Hamilton heard those words in her head in Schwarzenegger's voice, not to mention the conditions (like wearing a fake butt) under which she had to say it herself for Dark Fate, there's the little matter of how the phrase (or something very close to it) has been trotted out for every one of the previous Terminator sequels that have been made. Seriously, take a look at this collection of "I'll be back" utterances and think about how well yours would stack up...

That's a lot of pressure, no?

Well, it certainly sounds like Linda Hamilton managed to nail her own version of the words this time around. While Terminator: Dark Fate had its premiere cancelled because of recent Los Angeles brush fires, the pretty well-received film is still on schedule to open domestically (and hopefully better than internationally) this Friday, November 1. To see what else will hit theaters in the remainder of this year, check out our new movie release schedule!

I was today-years-old when I learned not everyone loves the thumbs up scene in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. James Cameron co-wrote and directed 1991's T2, so it makes sense that he loves the scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 sacrifices himself and gives one last thumbs up to the tearful John Connor (Eddie Furlong) and sad-but-stoic Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton).

Turns out, Linda Hamilton was not into the thumbs up. Neither was Tim Miller, her new director in Terminator: Dark Fate. Miller shared their true thoughts about the T2 scene with CinemaBlend's ReelBlend podcast:

I disagree, but I get it. And maybe he's right about age being a factor. I was fresh into double digits when I first saw T2 and that heartfelt moment hit me hard.

There goes John Connor's only true father figure. His friend. Our friend. Our hero. He won't be back. And yet, he is kinda back.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning for the direct sequel to T2, Dark Fate. He plays another T-800, one who now goes by Carl (!!!). This will be explained in the movie, including the connection to John Connor and how we left things in T2.

Terminator: Dark Fate reviews are in, and they have been mixed-to-good. Critics seem to think it's the third best Terminator film after the first two, which may be a low bar, but it also sounds like it brings the franchise back to James Cameron's basics. He never went to set during filming but was heavily involved behind-the-scenes and in editing.

Terminator: Dark Fate aims to answer the franchise's biggest question. A few other questions remain, though: Will there be another movie after this one? James Cameron has talked about setting up a trilogy, even if Linda Hamilton joked that she'd rather fake her own death than join in. One deciding factor for future movies will surely be how much money Terminator: Dark Fate makes at the box office. Opening projections are in, but the proof will be in the receipts next weekend.

Terminator 6, aka Dark Fate, opens in theaters Friday, November 1, which is also when the ReelBlend episode will drop. You can stream Terminator 2: Judgment Day on Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, etc. Feel free to sniffle at the thumbs-up scene, it's OK to be human.

One of the main reasons Terminator: Dark Fate stands out from its immediate predecessors is that it features the return of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, who she hadn’t played for nearly 30 years. It was a major achievement that the filmmakers convinced Hamilton to return to the franchise, but does this mean she’ll stick around for a Dark Fate sequel? Judging by her below comment, probably not:

Okay, so Linda Hamilton is clearly joking with that answer, but that doesn’t take away that performing in Terminator: Dark Fate was exhausting for her, though also incredibly rewarding. And she’s not the only actor who found Dark Fate to be a difficult endeavor. Here’s what Mackenzie Davis, who plays the cybernetically-enhanced human Grace, had to say about the production during their interview with The Daily Mail:

The last time Linda Hamilton appeared on screen as Sarah Connor was in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, one of those few sequels that’s widely considered to be just as good, if not better, than the original. She did vocally cameo in Terminator Salvation, but obviously getting to jump back into action for the R-rated Terminator: Dark Fate is a way bigger deal.

Regarding her decision to return to the Terminator franchise, Linda Hamilton said the following:

We’ll just have to wait and see if Linda Hamilton decides she wants to take part in another Terminator movie or if Terminator: Dark Fate is truly her swan song. Actually, we’ll have to wait and see if Dark Fate gets a sequel at all. Because while it could serve as the first entry in a new trilogy, Paramount Pictures hasn’t given the green light to a second installment just yet.

Obviously box office performance will be a big part in determining what the future of the Terminator franchise looks like, but judging from the early critical reaction, Terminator: Dark Fate is standing on much better ground than Salvation and Genisys. Admittedly, it’s falling into mixed-to-positive territory, but that’s better than the overall negative reaction those other two movies received.

Along with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprising their respective roles, as well as Mackenzie Davis as Grace, Terminator: Dark Fate stars Natalia Reyes as Dani Ramos, Gabriel Luna as the Rev-9 and Diego Boneta as Miguel Ramos. Deadpool’s Tim Miller directed the movie and James Cameron helped work on the story, though he was too busy with the Avatar sequels to ever visit the Dark Fate set.

Terminator: Dark Fate opens in theaters on November 1, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. You can learn what other movies are coming out before the year is over in our 2019 release schedule.

In recent years, one growing trend in the film industry that has seen incredible success is what could be called “Redemption Sequels.” These are specific franchise projects that arrive not only a good number of years after their direct predecessor, but also are burdened by the fact that they are following a movie (or multiple movies) that soured their brand by notably disappointing audiences.

Redemption Sequels are produced in hopes of reviving legacies, and generally operate by going back to basics and trying to hone in on exactly what made the series popular to begin with. We’ve now seen it work multiple time, some better than others, with titles such as J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World, and David Gordon Green’s Halloween. To use another buzz word, these are basically “remakequels” but worked because they (again, some more than others) recaptured the spirit of their respective seminal stories.

Now it's Terminator’s turn to find that same kind of redemption, as Tim Miller’s Terminator: Dark Fate is the best sequel that this series has seen since 1991 and the release of James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The new film takes a very similar approach to 2018’s Halloween – scrapping elements of the continuity, and not only bringing back franchise legends in front of the camera, but also behind it – and while the plot is very much a return to the formula of the first two movies, it works because it has an outstanding collection of dynamic and fun characters, great performances from the whole ensemble, and some bold and thrilling action sequences.

Ignoring all of the events featured in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation, and Terminator Genisys, Terminator: Dark Fate picks up years after Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and her son, John (Edward Furlong), managed to change the future and stop Cyberdyne Systems from launching Skynet… but through the events of the film, we learn that it wasn’t enough to stop the coming and seemingly inevitable artificial intelligence-driven apocalypse. Now instead it’s a superintelligence called Legion that is causing machine-enacted chaos – but still there exists the hope to change things via time travel.

It’s this that leads Grace (Mackenzie Davis), a human with artificial enhancements to go from the year 2042 to 2020. It’s in this year that she is meant to meet Daniella "Dani" Ramos (Natalia Reyes), a young woman working a factory job in Mexico City who has a target on her back courtesy of Legion. The artificial intelligence has also sent back one of their own, a model called the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), and it is Grace’s responsibility to stop it from terminating Dani.

Given that the Rev-9 is an absolutely deadly machine that has the ability to remotely control its endoskeleton while functioning apart from it, Grace definitely has her work cut out for her, but she isn’t alone in the battle. Twenty-three years after what was supposed to be the end of the world, Sarah Connor is still fighting the future, and though she is very far from what you might call a “people person,” she becomes a key ally in working to protect Dani.

With its pair of time travelers – one good, and one evil – and a mission to protect a woman in the past who is the key to saving humanity’s future, the new film clearly shares a lot of DNA with James Cameron’s original Terminator from 1984, which certainly isn’t an amazing thing for those who might have been hoping for something a little bit more original and creative story-wise. But while you may find the plot to be a bit lacking, what really drives the experience is its core ensemble, and Tim Miller’s work behind the camera.

Starting with the material that does feel legitimately fresh, audiences are introduced to two engaging and interesting protagonists in this movie, and one seriously intense and thrilling villain. Mackenzie Grace is phenomenal in the role of Grace, as her dedication and passion pours out of her every moment that she’s on the screen, and she proves to be a superb ass-kicker as well. Meanwhile, Natalia Reyes’ Dani definitely has a totally different energy, regularly panicked as bedlam takes over her life, and her world starts crumbling all around her, but much like Linda Hamilton was able to do back in the mid-1980s, she is still able to project a particular strength that instantly informs you that she isn’t ever just going to lie down and give up.

Gabriel Luna’s Rev-9 also provides a solidly executed twist on the familiar. Obviously Terminators aren’t exactly the most emotionally expressive creations, but this model has surprising moments of sinister personality. The real job for him, however, is being Terminator: Dark Fate’s unrelenting, unstoppable force of technology, and that is intensity that he sells excellently. Each time he catches up with the heroes, the stakes instantly rise, as his simple presence delivers a palpable concern that not everyone is going to make it out of a scene.

Ultimately, though, the big game changers here are both Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and not just because their roles in the story don’t have any direct comparisons in the original Terminator. It’s mostly because it’s fascinating to see how they’ve changed over the many decades since we first met them (though it should be noted that Schwarzenegger is playing a wholly new character to whom we are introduced in this movie). It’s fascinating because the two have practically swapped sensibilities. While Sarah Connor may have been successful in stopping the rise of Skynet, the victory doesn’t satiate her paranoia and fear, and she essentially becomes a Terminator in her own right as she lives her life with a single purpose. Furthermore, Hamilton’s performance is fascinating, as Sarah is far too rough around the edges to be likable, but her intense determination is admirable, and she has a fantastic dry wit.

In contrast, this new Schwarzenegger character – a T-800 model who goes by the name Carl – has lived a totally different life. While not too much can be revealed at this time about his part in the movie due to spoilers, he is a Terminator who has existed for long enough among humans for it to essentially change his core programming. He has adapted far more in normal society than any other Terminator, and the result is a totally different Schwarzenegger part, despite the fact that he’s now been in five of these movies.

Terminator: Dark Fate also may only be Tim Miller’s second movie as a director after spending most of his career in the visual effects field, but he is clearly learning fast, as particularly evident in the movie’s pacing and action sequences. This is a film that is just unrelenting in its first act, as it wastes very little time in between introducing the heroes and the villain, before jumping into the chase that basically defines the whole plot. It’s actually kind of shocking just how extended the opening action is, as it speeds from location to location, and just when you think it’s going to wrap up, a new twist is introduced that makes circumstances that much more dangerous for the leads. And while this isn’t a high energy level that dominates the entire film, as things get more character-based as we move towards the middle of the story, it returns when it’s needed, and Miller delivers a thrilling third act battle.

With the exception of the underrated two-season Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles television series, watching this franchise in recent decades has been largely a depressing affair, as there is clearly so much potential available in the big picture high-concept premise, and yet three movies totally whiffed it. The result is that Terminator: Dark Fate had a low bar to clear, but that doesn’t undercut that it’s still a very satisfying experience. We can only hope that the big future that the brand clearly has planned is able to keep producing movies that are as good or better.

Sarah Connor cannot be censored. The ‘80s heroine is memorably a badass, tough-as-nails Terminator lead who has no issue throwing out some F-bombs. And why not? When her character’s story began the franchise, it was inherently R-rated material flustered with violence, and she was being hunted by robots from the future. It’s a reasonable reaction! So when Linda Hamilton came back to the role almost 30 years later, of course there are more “fucks” for her to deliver this time around too!

Terminator: Dark Fate has Sarah Connor back in action, now as a full-fledged Terminator hunter in the R-rated film directed by Deadpool’s Tim Miller. When CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eisenberg attended a roundtable interview with producer James Cameron in Los Angeles, the filmmaker talked about Dark Fate's return to form. In his words:

Sounds like this is just embedded in the Sarah Connor character! The PG-13 rating’s allotted singular f-bomb just wouldn’t feel true to her character, and Tim Miller found this obvious from the beginning when trying to continue the tone of the original Terminator films directed by James Cameron. Especially considering Linda Hamilton’s iconic character has become even more hardened since the first two movies, now deeming herself a “Terminator hunter.”

Dark Fate will ignore the events of the PG-13 Terminator movies Salvation and Genisys, as well as Rise of the Machines. It will follow the events of Judgement Day almost 30 years later as Sarah Connor meets Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) and her own Terminator protector, Grace (MacKenzie Davis), as Gabriel Luna’s Rev-9 attempts to hunt them down. Connor has a reunion with a different model of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, who has assumed the name Carl, developed more human traits and fronts his own drapery business.

In the past, Terminator filmmakers may have steered away from making it R-rated to assure more success at the box office. But Tim Miller’s release of Deadpool is proof that R-ratings sell. Just look at Joker; it’s a money-making machine! James Cameron continued:

Alternatively, maybe Terminator: Dark Fate will benefit from being rated R. When hardcore fans were first introduced the property, its gritty quality was part of the charm that made it a legendary franchise. When the Terminator movies tried to please everyone, that’s where they failed.

Terminator: Dark Fate recently had its first audience screenings and the reaction has been largely positive. Eric Eisenberg called it the “best sequel in the franchise since T2” and compared it to the feel The Force Awakens had on bringing back the Star Wars franchise. Check it out for yourself on November 1.

The Terminator movies are sci-fi royalty, as James Cameron's dystopian technological cautionary tale has entertained moviegoers for decades. The most beloved installment in the long-running property is Terminator 2: Judgement Day, with Linda Hamilton playing a far more badass version of Sarah Connor. She's finally returning to the role for Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate, which required her to go through an intense fitness regimen to become the battle hardened character. But there's one piece to the transformation that surprised Hamilton: her fake butt.

Linda Hamilton has been open about the hardcore process she went through to get back in Sarah Connor set for Terminator: Dark Fate, which is a direct sequel to Terminator 2. She adopted an intense fitness and nutrition regimen, and even went on hormones for a while. This was all an attempt to be in killer shape as the Terminator hunter, but after getting super lean for the role, she was forced to rock a prosthetic buttocks during filming. As she put it:

Well, that's one way to do it. Linda Hamilton spent a year getting learner for Terminator: Dark Fate. But it seems she did too good a job, at least where her backside was concerned. Enter the fake butt.

Linda Hamilton's comments to The Daily Mail make a great deal of sense, considering just how much time the 63 year-old actress spent on her physical transformation. Hamilton went carb-less for a year, in addition to working her butt off at the gym. In fact, she seemingly worked too much of that butt off for the filmmakers behind Terminator: Dark Fate.

Related: Terminator: Dark Fate Has Screened, See What People Are Saying

Linda Hamilton also recently appeared on The Graham Norton Show, and spoke to the cognitive dissonance of slimming down, while also being outfitted with gear to make her more curvy. As she put it,

Looks like Sarah Connor will be rocking some junk in the trunk for Terminator: Dark Fate. That junk just might not have actually belonged to Linda Hamilton. But clearly the actress put her all into the training and filming for the highly anticipated blockbuster. The OG Sarah Connor is back on the big screened, joined by collaborators James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Edward Furlong.

Terminator: Dark World will arrive in theaters on November 1, 2019. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

He said he’d be back. We just didn’t know how many times! Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton both return to the Terminator franchise in November with the anticipated Terminator: Dark Fate, directed by Deadpool helmer Tim Miller. The movie screened for select press, and their reactions just arrived online. Should you get excited, or is it “Hasta la Vista” to your hopes?

Our very own Eric Eisenberg managed to see an early screening of Terminator: Dark Fate, and sets a tone that will be echoed by several journalists when he basically claims that Tim Miller’s movie is the first good sequel since T2. The movie was a special event at Alamo Drafthouse, which included as special message by Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Eric Tweeted his reaction, saying:

In addition to the shoutout to T2, Eric made a direct comparison to JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a movie that some claim was a carbon copy of the original Star Wars that also got back to the roots of what made the franchise work. That sentiment struck a chord with Germain Lussier of Gizmodo and io9, who Tweeted:

But it wouldn’t be a Terminator movie if it didn’t somehow set the stage for a new series of movies, would it? What is it about this franchise? They never just deliver one solid story. Every time they come back, it’s with a plan to relaunch a new trilogy of films, or an endless exploration into “The Future.” Just make ONE great sequel!!

Jim Vejvoda notes that this movie kind of serves both expected roles, commenting:

All looks good, though. The most negative reaction we could find from the press came from Peter Sciretta of SlashFilm, who basically points out that Tim Miller isn’t Jim Cameron. I mean, naturally.

So all in all, it looks like Terminator: Dark Fate might be the return to semi-glory that the franchise has been waiting on for the bulk of the past 15 years. After enduring the Rise of the Machines and Salvation, the bottom of the barrel appeared to be Terminator: Genisys, an abysmal reboot of the series that – stop me if you’ve heard this before – meant to launch a series of new films. That didn’t work out.

I guess all they needed to do was get Linda Hamilton to return earlier. That should have been obvious.

Terminator: Dark Fate stars Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis, Gabriel Luna and Natalia Reyes. It opens everywhere on November 1.

As far as sci-fi franchises go, there are few quite as beloved as Terminator. James Cameron created a violent and epic world with his first two movies, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the title character and Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. The latter actress spent a number of years away from her iconic character, and the generations of fans are eager to see her reprise her role Terminator: Dark Fate. But it turns out she didn't enjoy getting back into Sarah-shape for the upcoming blockbuster.

Linda Hamilton was 27 years old when she filmed her role in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, debuting a new badass Sarah Connor who was no longer a victim or bystander. She went through an intense physical transformation for the sequel, as well as intense gun training. Hamilton had to do the same for Dark Fate, but admitted it was more difficult the second time around. As she put it:

It looks like Linda Hamilton isn't especially nervous about hiding the aging process. The 62 year-old actress wanted to be as strong as she could as Sarah Connor, and doesn't mind if people see how the decades have affected her.

Linda Hamilton's comments to The New York Times help to illuminate the thought process behind her return to the Terminator franchise, and perhaps her most iconic character ever. She hasn't been especially active in the film world over the past few years, largely taking a break from Hollywood. But once James Cameron, Tim Miller, and Sarah Connor came knocking, she decided to return to the business and bring her heroine back to life onscreen.

Related: Linda Hamilton Refused To Say Some 'Stupid' Lines Of Dialogue In Terminator: Dark Fate

The trailers for Terminator: Dark Fate show that the movie is truly about Sarah Connor, who has spent decades killing Terminators and become even more hardened by the world. In order to transform into the character, there was a team of people helping Linda Hamilton. She trained in ballistics with Green Berets, and was put on hormone supplements to help her gain muscle. She also committed to doing the character's stunts.

While Dark Fate is still a few months away from theaters, anticipation for the blockbuster has been steadily building, in no short part due to Linda Hamilton's return to the franchise. She'll be joined by T2 co-stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong, and the upcoming movie will be a direct sequel to Judgement Day.

All will be revealed when Terminator: Dark Fate hits theaters on November 1st, 2019. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

It’s not easy convincing an action icon that coming back into the Terminator fold is a good idea. At least not according to director Tim Miller, who along with James Cameron had to convince Linda Hamilton playing Sarah Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate was a good idea, given what she would go through after taking on the role.

In fact, the director of Terminator: Dark Fate, which is finally out on November 1, said that signing Linda Hamilton for a return to the franchise was pretty difficult, given it meant the actress would “have to step into the spotlight” again.

Although Linda Hamilton has previously said it took just one phone call from her former partner James Cameron to get on board with the project, it seems there was a lot to consider before she said yes. After all, she lives in New Orleans now and is pickier about her projects.

In fact, in the interview with the New York Times, the actress says there was “hesitation” before she said “yes” to the sixth Terminator movie. She spoke out about the gig in context with her new lifestyle in New Orleans, noting,

It’s not just that Linda Hamilton has enjoyed a quieter life than the days when fans knew her as the Sarah Connor, however. The actress is also 62-years-old and went through a grueling training regimen for Terminator: Dark Fate in order to do Sarah Connor justice, also noting that she really did have to be utterly convinced signing on to the movie was a good idea. She said:

It’s not easy re-tackling a role you initially made iconic. It’s easy to look badass in a still or a trailer for a movie thanks to the magic of editing. But getting back up and doing the work on set every day was a challenge, and it’s all in the hope that the team will have created a new movie the Terminator fanbase will fall in love with.

Given the track record of previous Terminator releases, that’s no easy feat. In fact, Linda Hamilton has previously spoken out about what makes this version different, noting that the team worked really hard to narrow “the focus” unlike previously films, which had “too many story points.”

Linda Hamilton has, in fact, been very clear with her opinions in regards to returning to the franchise as Sarah Connor. She also has spoken out about how she and Tim Miller had to get on the same page with who Sarah Connor is now, noting Miller had an idea in his head that Connor would be “relatable,” an idea she had to bluntly turn on its head, given what she feels the character has gone through over the years. She went so far as to refuse some lines in the script because they were “stupid.”

So, stupid lines of dialogue are definitely out in this new movie, according to the actress, but on the bright side, we also know rocket launchers are in.

Related: Is Terminator: Dark Fate Wrapping Up Sarah Connor’s Story For Good?

Ultimately, at the end of the day Linda Hamilton is still an actress, with recent roles in Syfy’s Defiance and smaller movies like Curvature, and the thrill of returning to play the character for this newer project made sense. Terminator 6 was, in fact, too good of a gig for the actress to pass up. Now, let’s hope it’s too good to be missed in theaters.

Catch the new movie later in 2019 and see what else is coming to the box office before then with our full schedule.

Along with James Cameron’s return to the franchise, arguably the most exciting things about Terminator: Dark Fate is the return of franchise heroine and action icon Linda Hamilton in the role of Sarah Connor. Director Tim Miller may have gotten more than he bargained for with Linda Hamilton though, because the actress proved unyielding with some very firm opinions about her most famous character, as she explained:

It sounds like Tim Miller and Linda Hamilton were not on the same page for the R-rated Terminator: Dark Fate at all regarding the actress’s character in the beginning. Tim Miller wanted Linda Hamilton to play her as relatable, which is somewhat understandable because you want the audience to be able to identify with and follow the actions of the protagonist. But the way Linda Hamilton saw it, Sarah Connor is anything but relatable.

As Linda Hamilton told The Hollywood Reporter, Sarah Connor is only relatable in 1984’s The Terminator, when she is a waitress, before she gets thrust into a lifetime of war to protect a son that hadn’t yet been conceived. When we see her in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the film Dark Fate will follow, Sarah Connor is a soldier and a survivalist, rightfully paranoid about the coming apocalypse. Her love for her son and desire to protect him is relatable, but not many of us can relate to that type of life.

It seems that Linda Hamilton was worried that an attempt to make Sarah Connor more relatable would make her softer, and there's nothing soft about her. She's a stone cold badass. That didn’t make sense to the actress given the time that has passed for Sarah Connor since Judgment Day and what has happened to her.

Linda Hamilton’s strong opinions about Sarah Connor extended beyond the broad approach to the character to specific lines of dialogue. The actress even refused to say certain lines, as she recalled:

As if there was any doubt, Linda Hamilton proved she’s as fierce as her character and was willing to breathe a bit of fire when presented with material that didn’t feel right to her. From our vantage we can’t judge these rejected lines and whether they were right or not, but to Linda Hamilton they either sounded stupid, like something Sarah Connor would never say, or both.

Linda Hamilton may have saved us from some cringey dialogue and it’s cool to hear that the actress felt strongly enough to speak up and put her foot down. She did that in situations she normally wouldn’t because of how much she cares about Sarah Connor. Talking about that sense of ownership, Linda Hamilton said:

Never one for making waves, Linda Hamilton was a tsunami when she needed to be in order to make sure that the Sarah Connor who showed up in Terminator: Dark Fate was one that felt true to her. The actress is certainly right that she is the authority on Sarah Connor (although an honorable mention is owed to Lena Headey for her performance in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), having played the character twice and lived with her for decades.

It’s great that Linda Hamilton gave her creative input on Terminator: Dark Fate, of course, and the fact that there was such dissonance between Tim Miller’s vision and the dialogue with what the actress felt was right could be cause for concern. But hopefully that back and forth ultimately bettered the film.

Terminator: Dark Fate hits theaters on November 1. Check out our premiere guide to see what movies you can look forward to the rest of this year.

Franchise fans will long remember the transformation that Linda Hamilton underwent going from the original Terminator to T2: Judgement Day. The Sarah Connor character became completely different from one story to the next – going from “woman on the run from a killer robot” to “warrior against the apocalypse” – and that required a serious physical change that saw the actress turn into a muscle-bound ass-kicker.

It’s a brilliant part of action movie history, but apparently things didn’t go quite as well when the actress tried to pull off a similar trick in the making of the upcoming Terminator: Dark Fate.

The new movie had its big Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con this morning, and it was during an interview with CinemaBlend and AMC Theatres after the panel that Linda Hamilton openly discussed the bit of trouble that she had while trying to get back into Judgement Day-esque shape for the new Terminator. Apparently there was an attempt to facilitate her exercise efforts with the use of hormones, but they didn’t quite agree with her, and caused some unfortunate alterations to her mood and her blood pressure. Hamilton explained,

It was a honest attempt to try and go the extra mile for her role in Terminator: Dark Fate, but clearly it didn’t put her in a great place. It’s not exactly fun to just feel angry all the time, so it will probably come as no surprise that using the hormones wasn’t a regimen that she was able to stick with for very long.

Continuing, Linda Hamilton added that she terminated her use of the chemicals following a late night chat with her doctor – and that the whole thing ultimately left her with an important takeaway: while physicality is important, what is far more vital is her ability to get into the character’s mind and sell Sarah Connor’s reality with her performance. Said the actress,

It’s pretty crazy that we are getting another big screen chapter in the Sarah Connor saga nearly 30 years after the original sequel – and it won’t be long until we all get to see it ourselves. Directed by Tim Miller and co-starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Diego Boneta, Gabriel Luna, and Edward Furlong, Terminator: Dark Fate will be in theaters November 1st.

As far as sci-fi franchises go, there are few quite as iconic as director James Cameron's The Terminator. Cameron's original pair of movies are royalty within the genre, with Terminator 2 considered one of the best sci-fi movies of all time. In addition to collaborating with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the director also worked with actress Linda Hamilton as she played an ever changing Sarah Connor.

Linda Hamilton was noticeably sent from the myriad sequels that followed T2, but she's returning to the Terminator franchise with Tim Miller's upcoming addition Dark Fate. Hamilton previously mentioned that she didn't enjoy the recent Terminator sequels, and now she's further expanded her thoughts, saying:

Well, that criticism does appear to be constructive. Linda Hamilton isn't merely lobbing insults at movies like Terminator Genisys or Salvation. Instead, she's commenting on a trend she noticed within the franchise, where character development took a backseat to the action and stunts.

Linda Hamilton's comments to EW make a great deal of sense when you take into account how the first two Terminator movies went down. The movies were firmly focused on the character of Sarah Connor, who suddenly becomes crucial to the fate of the future and the war against machines. The first movie saw her fall in love and become a reluctant fighter. But by the time we saw her in Terminator 2, so much had changed.

T2 featured a Sarah Connor who was traumatized by her experience in the first movie, kept in a mental health facility while her son John was given to a foster family. She was ripped and experienced with weapons, in stark juxtaposition to the meek woman we met in James Cameron's original movie. It should be fascinating to see what comes next for Sarah, as Terminator: Dark World catches up with the femme fatale after years of fighting.

Related: The 10 Best Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies, Including Terminator, Total Recall And More

In comparison, the previous Terminator sequels featured a variety of different actors. 2003's Terminator 3 followed Nick Stahl's version of John Connor, with Sarah apparently dying offscreen. But the ill-fated Terminator Salvation gave Christian Bale the role of John, and followed him in a post-judgement day reality. Finally, Genisys went back in time with Emilia Clarke playing a young Sarah Connor. None of these movies were connected, and Linda Hamilton thinks they sacrificed character work for explosions.

Luckily, Linda Hamilton and Tim Miller have a chance to course correct with Terminator: Dark Fate which will ignore all of the sequels without Hamilton, and directly related to the events of Terminator 2.

Terminator: Dark Fate will arrive in theaters on November 1st, 2019. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Sci-fi is a tried and true genre, capable of transporting moviegoers to colorful lands and dystopian futures. And there's perhaps no franchise quite as iconic as James Cameron's The Terminator. Cameron's first two movies are legendary within the genre, and the larger franchise has never been too far from theaters. But the property is going back to basics for Terminator: Dark World, as a direct sequel to T2 with Linda Hamilton returning to the role of Sarah Connor.

OG Terminator fans are psyched to see the story of Terminator 2 continued, as the sequel is widely considered the most successful installment. And with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and James Cameron all involved, Dark Fate has some serious buzz around it. Cameron has been personally stoking the fire of that anticipation, and has posted an epic image of Hamilton as his iconic heroine. Check it out.

Does anyone else have goosebumps? Sarah Conner had a huge arc in the first two Terminator movies, with Linda Hamilton and James Cameron crafting a complex lead character. So there's no telling where she'll end up going when Dark Fate finally arrives in theaters.

The above image is a glimpse into Linda Hamilton's long awaited return to Sarah Connor, after the role was played by various actresses in the years since T2 was released. Time doesn't appear to have softened Sarah, as she's shown wearing full tactical gear, and covered in weaponry to handle threats--robotic or otherwise.

In an almost apocalyptic setting, Sarah Connor has put her pocketknife into the bench she's sitting on, and has her trusty pistol close to her chest. Of course, these won't be the only weapons Linda Hamilton's character uses in Terminator: Dark Fate. The first trailer showed the character with some heavily artillery, filling Gabriel Luna's Rev-9 with a number of massive rounds, before literally blowing the villain up.

Related: James Cameron Refused To Make Terminator: Dark Fate Without Arnold Schwarzenegger

Of course, the Rev-9 Terminator won't be taken down that easily, as the first Dark Fate trailer also teased some exciting abilities for the new killing machine. Specifically, he's able to split into two separate robots, and therefore pose double the threat to Sarah Connor and the new cast of human characters.

Overall, it looks like Dark Fate will focus quite a bit on Sarah Connor, filling in the decades since we saw Linda Hamilton's iteration back in 1991. She's been shown uttering the iconic "I'll Be Back" line, and is far more prominently featured in the first trailer than Arnold Schwarzenegger's title character.

Audiences will also be treated to flashbacks of Sarah with her son John Connor, brought to life through the magic of extensive visual affects. Linda Hamilton's likeness will be de-aged (a practice becoming far more common thanks to the MCU), and actor Edward Furlong's likeness from Terminator 2 will be recreated digitally. And with Deadpool director Tim Miller behind the camera to bring Terminator: Dark Fate to theaters, there's some serious talent behind this canon-breaking sequel.

Terminator: Dark Fate will arrive in theaters on November 1st. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

As far as sci-fi properties go, there are few quite as beloved as the Terminator franchise. James Cameron brought the titular robot to the big screen back in 1984, and its never been far from theaters in the decades since. But out of the entire series, Terminator 2: Judgement Day remains the undisputed fan favorite. Plus, it's the last movie that Cameron was intimately involved in. That is... until now.

The franchise is coming back to theaters with Terminator: Dark Fate, which will be a direct sequel to T2. James Cameron is involved as a producer, and the new movie will also welcome Linda Hamilton back to her signature character Sarah Connor. The first Dark Fate trailer was super exciting, and a new clip has Sarah Connor uttering the most iconic line from the entire franchise: "I'll be back." Check it out below.

Does anyone else have chills? On top finally uttering the line made by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original Terminator, Linda Hamilton does so in perhaps the most badass way possible. Namely, by popping a grenade as she did it, and calmly walking away from the impending explosion.

This new clip just hammers down what a total badass Sarah Connor has remained since we saw her in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Linda Hamilton had a massive transformation between her two appearances, with T2 taking her from victim to deadly mental patient. And she's remained just as capable through the decades, as the first trailer for Dark Fate showed her going toe to toe with Gabriel Luna's new Terminator model.

The Terminator franchise may have never really left theaters, but the various sequels lacked the same tone as the first two. These movies resulted as a combination of James Cameron and his stars Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger. And now that the trio have once again collaborated on Terminator: Dark Fate, and it looks like there will be plenty of references to the start of the franchise. That includes using some iconic lines of dialogue that are synonymous with those movies.

Aside from including lines like "I'll be back", Terminator: Dark Fate will also deeply connect to Terminator 2 through the use of flashbacks. The upcoming sequel will include new scenes of a younger Sarah Connor and her son John-- who is noticeably missing from the film's cast. CGI will be used to de-age Linda Hamilton, while the same type of visual affects will bring Edward Furlong's likeness as John back to the silver screen. It's an exciting concept, especially as movies like Captain Marvel and Rogue One have proven how far that technology has come.

Related: Arnold Schwarzenegger Looks Totally Badass In First Terminator: Dark Fate Image

Given the footage from the above video, it should be interesting to see if more iconic Terminator lines end up making their way to Dark Fate. "Come with me if you want to live" seem like an easy bit of dialogue to fit into such an action-packed sequel. And with the original Terminator and Sarah Connor reuniting, there's also the opportunity for Arnold Schwarzenegger to say "I'm a friend of Sarah Connor." We'll just have to wait and see what Deadpool director Tim Miller has up his sleeve for the generations of Terminator fans.

All will be revealed when Terminator: Dark Fate arrives in theaters on November 1st. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

The Terminator first said "I'll be back" in 1984. He was right, several times over, but I can't say I expected him to still be back 35 years later. Turns out, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and franchise co-creator James Cameron are all returning for Terminator 6, also known as Terminator: Dark Fate, a direct sequel to their Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Before getting into the weeds, let's check out the first trailer, which was released mid-May 2019, right after the amazing official poster:

And now here's everything we know so far to get you up-to-speed on the 2019 film Terminator: Dark Fate...

What Is The Terminator 6 Release Date?

Terminator 6 is being directed by Tim Miller (Deadpool) and it's currently scheduled to open in theaters on November 1, 2019. That's a slight change from its previous Nov. 22, 2019 release date. The Wonder Woman sequel was going to open on Nov. 1, but moved to June 2020. At this point, Terminator: Dark Fate is poised to compete against the Charlie's Angels reboot on the first day of November. The following week in November currently holds releases for Sonic the Hedgehog and Midway. Studios love to shift titles around, but that's the lineup for now. (Update: All of those other movies have since moved, while Terminator: Dark Fate is still at Nov. 1. Guess Sarah scared them away?)

What Is The Terminator 6 Rating? 

As the sun now stands, Terminator 6 doesn't have an official rating from the MPAA. However, James Cameron confirmed to Flicks and the City that Terminator: Dark Fate will be Rated R:

That makes sense, since it's an extension of the first two movies in the franchise, and they were both Rated R. Two of the next three films in the franchise were rated PG-13, but this film is pretending those movies don't exist. Plus, director Tim Miller came to this fresh from Deadpool, which was also Rated R. He has a streak going.

What Is The Full Title Of Terminator 6?

Terminator 6 is titled Terminator: Dark Fate. 'Cause remember, kids, there's no fate but what we make for ourselves. It sounds like the working title used during filming for a while was Terminator 6: Phoenix. The Terminator Fans uncovered some posts from one of the supporting cast members, and the actor referred to the film as Terminator 6: Phoenix. There was thought, at one point, that that might be the official title. James Cameron finally said, mid-February 2019, that they were calling the film Terminator: Dark Fate. Does that suggest an unhappy ending for this film, or perhaps an alternate dark future after T2? Is that why John Connor doesn't seem to be a main character -- because his fate took a dark turn and now we need a new hero for the future?

What Is The Plot Of Terminator 6?

Paramount has yet to release an official synopsis for Terminator 6. However, James Cameron -- who directed the first two films and produced this one -- told THR the 2019 Terminator film is meant to continue the story from Terminator 1 and Terminator 2:

Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor and Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 are returning from the first two films. In February 2019, Cameron revealed that Terminator: Dark Fate will deal with how time and dealing with "these tragic futures" has changed Sarah and show her passing the torch of knowledge for all this imminent doom to new characters. Hamilton and Schwarzenegger will be joined by new stars, including Natalia Reyes as Dani and Mackenzie Davis as Grace. Grace is a super-soldier sent back to protect Dani, who is apparently very important to the future in the way Sarah Connor was in the first two Terminator movies. Both new actresses appeared with Linda Hamilton in the first official cast photo (see above), confirming the lead characters. Gabriel Luna was also cast as a new Terminator.

Sarah Connor - Linda Hamilton

Sarah Connor is back! We met her in The Terminator as the future mother of John Connor (played by Eddie Furlong in T2), eventual leader of the Resistance in the war against Skynet. But she's so much more than that. Sarah began as something of a typical damsel in distress in the 1984 film, but when she returned in 1991's classic T2, soft Sarah transformed into a muscled machine of her own. She became an action hero icon. As an adolescent when T2 came out, Sarah Connor was my hero.

Linda Hamilton was married to her Terminator director, James Cameron, and they share a daughter. He's the one who approached her about returning to this role, as he told THR:

Director Tim Miller added his excitement to see the now 62-year-old Linda Hamilton return to Sarah Connor:

Linda Hamilton's return as Sarah Connor is already being compared to Jamie Lee Curtis returning for the 2018 Halloween. That Halloween return resulted in a major win at the box office, and we'll have to see if that's the case again for Terminator: Dark Fate.

T-800 - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger, now 71, is returning to his T-800 role for this film. He shared a reunion photo with Linda Hamilton during filming, showing that his character definitely gets banged up. Last year, James Cameron talked to The Arnold Fans about the T-800, and teased some potentially interesting directions. The site had asked if Cameron had ever considered having Schwarzenegger play a human character serving as the basis for the T-800. Here's Cameron's response:

It's clear James Cameron was already thinking ahead, not just for Terminator 6, but potentially down the line for more Terminator films after this one.

Dani Ramos - Natalia Reyes

Colombian actress Natalia Reyes will play Dani Ramos, one of the new leading roles. The first photo from Terminator 6 showed Dani next to Sarah Connor and fellow newcomer Grace. Apparently Dani works at "Arius Motors," since that's the logo on her mechanic shirt. TerminatorFans posted a casting notice for this character a while back, with Dani described as an independent woman in her early 20s from Mexico City; she was brought up in a working-class neighborhood, and is more street-smart than book smart. She's a strong believer in family and always manages to find a ray of light even in the darkest circumstances.

There's speculation that Dani may anchor the Terminator franchise from here, if they do end up making more films, with Terminator: Dark Fate giving satisfying (hopefully) closure to Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger in their OG roles. This appears to be Natalia Reyes' first American role, and it's quite a debut!

Grace - Mackenzie Davis

Mackenzie Davis has another new leading role for the Terminator franchise, playing a character named Grace. The first photo from Terminator 6 -- with Sarah Connor, Dani Ramos, and Grace -- showed markings on Grace's body. She's expected to be some kind of soldier/assassin, and it's possible she's from the future, but that's still speculation at this point. Fans will know Mackenzie Davis from AMC's Halt and Catch Fire, and her roles in the films Blade Runner 2049 and The Martian. Black Mirror fans will also remember her from the Emmy-winning episode, "San Junipero."

Mackenzie Davis is one of the more high profile additions to the franchise, and certainly no stranger to sci-fi. She was also reportedly director Tim Miller's "top choice for a while" before her casting was officially announced.

Terminator - Gabriel Luna

Actor Gabriel Luna played Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider on ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and now he'll play the new Terminator. A few months ago, original Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger tweeted a photo in the gym, mentoring and "machine training" Luna. So, we know Luna got ripped for the intense role. We also know his Terminator has liquid metal capabilities and can duplicate himself. That's a handy trick.

Dani's brother - Diego Boneta

Singer-actor Diego Boneta has been cast as Dani Ramos' brother. At this point, that's all we know about him, but we already know that Dani is very family oriented, so we should expect her brother to be a key part of the story. Boneta starred in the film Rock of Ages, but is arguably best known for his many TV roles on shows like Scream Queens, 90210, Pretty Little Liars, and Jane The Virgin. He also has the lead role in the TV series Luis Miguel, and several more roles in his native Mexico.

Will John Connor Return In Terminator 6?

There will surely be plenty of supporting characters, but will we see John Connor again? It doesn't sound like Edward Furlong is returning, but a photo was posted that suggests young John Connor may be back in some fashion. The photo, which you can see at Bloody-Disgusting was marked "Edward Furlong's (Jude Collie) and Arnold Schwarzenegger's (Brett Azar) CGI stand-ins in Terminator (2019). Young John Connor and the T-800 are back."

The photo shows both actors flexing together for the camera. Based on this, it sounds like we might get a CGI version of John Connor, as well as some CGI to keep the T-800's body in shape. Bloody Disgusting said Jude Collie is alleged to be playing young John Connor, but since the photo called both Collie and Brett Azar CGI stand-ins, the site speculated that we might see younger Edward Furlong's T2 face used in the film.

Will There Be A Terminator 7?

The Terminator franchise has nothing official on the books other than Terminator 6. But, somehow it always manages to come back. Based on James Cameron's comments, it sounds like this is hoped to be the start of a new trilogy. Then again, we've heard that before. There was hope that Terminator Salvation would be the start of a new trilogy, and hope that Terminator Genisys would start a new trilogy. Obviously, that did not pan out. Here's what James Cameron said in July 2017 about new plans for the future of the franchise:

Some fans think this next film needs to end the franchise, but the box office will most likely be the deciding vote. We'll see how fans feel once Terminator: Dark Fate is released along with the many other films of 2019.

We still have a while to wait until we can see everything Terminator 6 has in store for us, so be sure to bookmark this guide to stay up to date with all the new info as it becomes available!

There's no fate but what we make for ourselves, and fans took that very seriously when it came to the Terminator: Dark Fate poster. You may know that tomorrow -- Thursday, May 23 -- we are getting the first official trailer for Terminator 6. A day ahead of schedule, the movie's official poster was revealed. The reveal used a perfect callback to the first movie, 1984's The Terminator, just using social media instead of a phone book.

Before the official Terminator: Dark Fate site shared the poster of Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor, the wise sages at The Terminator Fans discovered that the poster had already been quietly shared another way:

Yes, there's a new account called @SarahConnor829 -- with that August 29 date having special significance as Judgment Day itself. That account just opened and only shared one tweet, the poster that the fans quickly found.

The official Terminator: Dark Fate Twitter account reposted the above tweet with congratulations:

Here's a little more background on Paramount's clever marketing twist for the poster. In an ode to Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1984 Terminator going through the phone book to find and kill off any and all Sarah Connors to get to the right one, there was a Twitter list created of Sarah Connors. A Sarah Connor account within the list launched the poster early Wednesday morning -- the day before the trailer release -- and The Terminator Fans site found the right one.

Here's a full look at the poster, which was shared with the caption "Welcome to the day after Judgment Day":

Terminator: Dark Fate is meant to be a sequel to both The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day -- considering "forgettable" films Terminator 3, Terminator Salvation, and Terminator Genisys as happening in alternate timelines. T2 ended with Sarah and John Connor driving away down a highway, and that's another reference you can see in the new Dark Fate poster.

As you can see with this poster, Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor is front and center in the promotion for Terminator: Dark Fate. In this case, she walks alone, even though she will be joined by several old and new characters. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be returning as T-800, with newcomers including Mackenzie Davis as assassin-from-the-future Grace, Natalia Reyes as Dani Ramos, Diego Boneta as Dani's brother, and Gabriel Luna as the new Termintator. The new liquid metal Terminator can duplicate himself, and apparently he has been sent to terminate Dani, while Grace is meant to protect her.

Linda Hamilton said James Cameron is the one who convinced her to come back for Terminator: Dark Fate. He directed her in the first two movies, but now he's "just" a hands-on producer, although he's also on the list of story-by credits. Tim Miller (Deadpool) is the one who directed Terminator 6.

CinemaBlend already got to see some early footage from Terminator: Dark Fate at CinemaCon 2019 and shared a promising update.

Fans will get their first looks at Terminator: Dark Fate footage when the first trailer drops tomorrow morning, Thursday, May 23. The movie is scheduled to open in theaters on November 1, 2019. Keep up with all of the 2019 release dates with our handy guide.

Yesterday marked a very special anniversary for fans of the Terminator franchise. It was 35 years ago that the first Terminator film was released. 35 years later the sixth film in the franchise is in post production getting ready for release this fall. Director Tim Miller celebrated the anniversary by letting fans know that the first trailer for Terminator: Dark Fate is on the way, and showing us a single shot from that trailer, Sarah Conner looking badass.

Linda Hamilton's return to the Terminator franchise has to be the highlight of the upcoming film. We haven't seen the original Sarah Connor on the big screen since Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 1991. The fact that Linda Hamilton would return to the franchise after all this time is seen by many a good sign. If she's willing to return now after turning down previous, generally viewed as bad, sequels, then this means that Terminator: Dark Fate has what those other movies were missing, right?

Well, one thing those sequels were certainly missing was Sarah Connor holding a rocket launcher, and it looks like Dark Fate has that based on the single frame we see of the upcoming trailer. This is exactly the sort of thing that fans are probably looking forward to with the new film.

In the original Terminator Sarah Connor was a woman in over her head and the run for her life. However, knowing that she needed to be able to protect herself she became a fighter and had transformed by the time we saw her in Judgement Day. It seems the plan for Terminator: Dark Fate is to pull the same movie as the recent Halloween sequel, by ignoring all sequels that came after T2 and picking up the story from there.

This is probably a good move as the most recent sequel, Terminator: Genisys, didn't really go over well except in China. It made some pretty significant changes to the canon which didn't sit well with fans. Although, the fact that the movie came out so recently, certainly has the potential to confuse fans if the new movie is just going to pretend it didn't happen.

While the post on Twitter doesn't reveal when we'll see the new trailer, Terminator: Dark Fate is a Paramount Pictures film, and the next big release from that studio is the Elton John biopic Rocketman so there's a good chance the plan is to attach the trailer to that film. Of course, since most trailers get dropped online first, we'll likely see this trailer hit sometime in the next two weeks ahead of the movie.

Since the previous Terminator film didn't do all that well in North America, this trailer has some important work to do. It has to convince fans that they need to check out the new movie, after many have apparently decided to write off the franchise. It seems so often that trailers exist only to increase the hype for things people already want to see, but this one really will need to energize an audience that has clearly become tired of this particular franchise.

Terminator: Dark Fate is set for release November 1.

A full 35 years after she first played the role of Sarah Connor, actor Linda Hamilton is still the textbook definition of what that character represents. Going from a typical female target of a robotic killing machine in The Terminator to a badassed hero in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, her performance is a lynchpin to what fans expect from the series. So the news that she was indeed returning in Terminator: Dark Fate to play the part she made famous was something that made fans actually happy to see yet another film taking place in this famous franchise; and we all have James Cameron to thank for that.

While James Cameron previously told the world the story about that fateful phone call he made to bring Linda Hamilton back to the fold for Terminator 6, she explained the scenario that drew her back in with the following details:

The exact idea that captured both Linda Hamilton and James Cameron’s imaginations isn’t totally revealed just yet, but knowing that Terminator: Dark Fate is supposed to wipe the slate clean back to the end of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, we can kind of see what brought her back into the fold. Most importantly, the fact that Sarah Connor’s alleged death after a battle of cancer, as noted in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, is now erased.

Last seen, or rather heard, in Terminator: Salvation, Linda Hamilton hasn’t appeared on camera as the key figure in humanity’s defeat of Skynet since the last time James Cameron actually directed a Terminator film. Though Deadpool director Tim Miller is the helmer behind Terminator: Dark Fate, Cameron is the most hands-on he’s been with the film as a producer and shaper of the story that marks the sixth film in the series. And as Hamilton confirmed with ET Online at CinemaCon, he was the person to really win her over on coming back.

Part of me is excited that Terminator: Dark Fate will see Sarah Connor suiting up again, but there’s a nagging feeling that part of James Cameron’s pitch involves delivering Sarah to the Grim Reaper himself, as the torch is apparently being passed to the younger generation of this series. That usually means those who built the foundations find themselves iced, so as to prove that the situation is truly serious.

Ultimately, whether Sarah Connor lives or dies, if Linda Hamilton thinks that Terminator: Dark Fate has such a good idea that she has to be a part of it, that should excite the fans awaiting her return. When a character as formidable as Sarah Connor gets a proper end, with full approval by the person who brought them to life in the first place, there’s no better fate than that very scenario.

Terminator: Dark Fate unveils what Sarah Connor’s been up to all these years on November 1. But should you want to determine your box office fate sooner than that release date will allow, you’ll want to take a look at the 2019 release schedule. You’ll be back to the theaters in no time!

The Terminator franchise is still incredibly popular with fans, which is impressive considering that even many of those fans will tell you that most of the sequels aren't all that great. Linda Hamilton, who will be making her return to the franchise with the upcoming Terminator: Dark Fate, goes so far as to call the previous sequels, "forgettable," saying that the franchise lost its focus, something she feels the new movie will fix. According to Hamilton...

Linda Hamilton is of the opinion that the reason that the first two Terminator films worked so well is because the fans fell in love with the characters, not necessarily the broader mythology of the franchise. The sequels that we've seen tried to take the Terminator movies to different places and try different things by playing with the mechanics, but the original Sarah Conner doesn't think that's why people cared.

Of course, when talking about the characters that people care about, Linda Hamilton is clearly telling Variety that she means her own character of Sarah Conner. While the character made a return in Terminator: Genisys, it was with Emilia Clarke playing the role, so it certainly wasn't the same thing.

Hamilton is probably on to something with her assessment of the Terminator franchise. The first two films, for better or worse, were focused on very simple ideas and characters. Terminators get sent back in time to kill Sarah Conner and her son. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines does keep the story that simple, but in doing so includes a lot more characters and tries to broaden and dive into the mythology a little deeper.

Terminator: Salvation then tried to be something entirely new by taking the story into the war with the machines. Again, many more characters and more focus on the the broader story. It gets points for trying something different, but if you weren't looking for something different, then it all comes apart.

It's understandable that movie studios would want to be able to make Terminator it's own "cinematic universe," though nobody was using that term back then. The more you can build on the mythology, the more movies you can make. However, it's still usually the characters that audiences make connections with, not just interesting plot elements.

Of course, that doesn't mean that just because Linda Hamilton is in the new Terminator, it's automatically going to be great. However, if the focus of the film also works in such a way that Terminator: Dark Fate also feels like it's more closely related to the first two movies, as Hamilton believes it is, then we might be on to something.

There’s been a lot of talk about the new Terminator sequel and what it will be about. We know Tim Miller is helming the project, there are new cast members and original cast members Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger will be involved. We've also seen some images from the new movie, but there’s a hell of a lot we don’t know about Terminator: Dark Fate and at CinemaCon 2019 the lips of cast members like Linda Hamilton, Schwarzenegger and Mackenzie Davis were clamped tightly about plot points. Luckily, the Paramount footage people were not.

We got to see some original footage from Terminator: Dark Fate and while it focused a lot on the new characters, it also tied into nostalgia in a big way.

But first, here’s what happened.

The footage starts on a bridge with an electric bubble that rips up the road and causes car crashes. Out of it drops Mackenzie Davis’ Grace, who falls from the bridge, utterly naked, and ends up landing several floors off the bridge and down onto the ground hard. A couple making out sees the fall and rushes over, only for the police to show up and assume the naked Mackenzie Davis is in trouble.

Quickly, we see the scene portrayed from her own visual viewpoint, seeing some of what her terminator-like abilities are. She sizes up the police and takes them out, prompting the young couple to thank her for saving them. She says, “Don’t thank me yet,” before stealing the young man’s clothes and the couples’ car--seemingly a nod to Terminator.

Later, there’s a scene we’ve touched on previously, in which and actress Natalia Reyes’s character Dani Ramos are running from Gabriel Luna’s new Terminator character, who is hellbent on attacking them. Just when things look dire and Mackenzie Davis tells the other young woman to run when they “start to kill her,” Linda Hamilton shows up on the scene in a vehicle, whips out a gun and shoots before she asks any questions.

Even if you’ve never seen a Terminator movie before this scene would likely be enough to hook you.

Obviously, we’ve already seen early images of Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Conner, not to mention Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return; however, seeing her in action was something different altogether. It moved director Tim Miller enough that he had some tears in his eyes on the stage and he shared with the audience that being brought in for Terminator: Dark Fate was a ‘labor of love.’

So where does this nostalgia come in? Notably, at the very end of the lengthy preview, in which a cool as a cucumber Sarah Conner nonchalantly notes “I’ll be back.”

Paramount’s presentation today is big on tying back to James Cameron’s original Terminator movies. Tim Miller noted that when he spoke, but so did Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton. The former attributed his success and his catchphrases to Terminator while the latter said it would only have taken a special project to pull her back into the Terminator fold 30 years later.

Terminator: Dark Fate will be released into theaters on November 1. To find out what it’ll be competing with at the box office, take a look at our full movie release schedule.

While she hasn’t been present for every Terminator movie, there’s no arguing that without Sarah Connor, the sci-fi saga wouldn’t exist. So it was good to hear that she would be back for Terminator 6, currently known as Terminator: Dark Fate, this time with Linda Hamilton reprising the role nearly 30 years after Terminator 2: Judgement Day. No one blinks an eye anymore at seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to play a T-800/850 model anymore, but the fact that Dark Fate director Tim Miller and producer James Cameron managed to convince Hamilton to return to this world is impressive. It also makes me wonder if Dark Fate will turn a new chapter in the Terminator franchise by wrapping up Sarah’s story. For real this time!

I don’t need to remind any of you that Sarah Connor was one of the main human protagonists of the first two Terminator movies. The Terminator saw her being shaken out of her idyllic life when she was targeted by a T-800, and Terminator 2 showed her 11 years later as a hardened warrior obsessed with Judgement Day and determined to keep herself and her John safe. And then came Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, where it was revealed that Sarah had died of leukemia in 1997, though she’d lived long enough to see Judgement Day come and go without any mass annihilation. Not that it mattered, since in this timeline, Judgement Day was merely postponed and came to pass in 2004 instead.

It should be noted that Linda Hamilton was approached to reprise Sarah Connor in Terminator 3, but she turned down the opportunity because she felt her role in the movie was “kind of disposable.” So killing Sarah Connor off-screen was definitely anti-climactic and the character deserved something better, but it just couldn’t be helped. Hamilton did make a vocal cameo as Sarah in Terminator Salvation, but once Terminator Genisys rolled around in 2015, Emilia Clarke inherited the role. That movie took a 2009 Star Trek-like approach with rebooting the Terminator continuity, including having Sarah already being a formidable warrior by the time Kyle Reese travels back in time to protect her. Alas, because Genisys was met with mostly negative reception, we won’t be seeing any more of this Terminator timeline.

(I’d be remiss if I didn’t also note that future Game of Thrones star Lena Heady played Sarah Connor in the short-lived Fox TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but for the purposes of this feature, we’re only focusing on the Terminator movies.)

Which brings us to Terminator: Dark Fate, which is serving as a sequel to the first two Terminator movies and ignoring all the subsequent entries. In other words, Sarah’s dying of cancer is no longer canon in this continuity, and Linda Hamilton’s version of the character is still kicking. Clearly if Hamilton was willing to return for Dark Fate, she approved of the material James Cameron and Tim Miller pitched her much more than what she was given for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. No specific plot details have been revealed for Dark Fate yet, but considering that Cameron said back in 2017 that this latest Terminator movie is intended to be the start of a new trilogy that would “pass the baton,” I can’t help feeling like the reason Hamilton agreed to return to the franchise was because she was promised that Sarah could make a grand exit that actually does the character justice. Her leaving paves the way for a new generation.

Perhaps Linda Hamilton returning for Terminator: Dark Fate is a situation similar to how Harrison Ford was willing to reprise Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In the decades after Return of the Jedi came out, Ford was open about how he wished Han had died in the original Star Wars trilogy capper, and then The Force Awakens comes along granting his wish. What if Hamilton received similar assurances about Dark Fate? That Sarah will also die, but as opposed to it happening offscreen again, she’d be given the hero’s death that she deserves. That’d certainly be big incentive to return to a character you haven’t played in nearly 30 years.

Judging by that Terminator: Dark Fate photo that’s been released, clearly Sarah Connor is still quite the badass nearly decades after the events of Terminator 2. One can presume then that she’ll see at least a little action in Dark Fate, so it’s easy enough to imagine a scenario where she dies in battle. And, as mentioned earlier, her death makes room for the new Terminator characters, like Mackenzie Davis’ Grace and Natalia Reyes’ Dani Ramos, to take over as the new main characters of this franchise.

It’s also worth mentioning that it doesn’t look like John Connor will have a major role in Terminator: Dark Fate. His adolescent self will appear in some capacity, with Edward Furlong’s likeness being placed via CGI over body double Jude Collie, but there’s no word about an adult John appearing. Assuming Dark Fate takes place in 2019, then John should be leading the Resistance against Skynet by this point, but then again, we don’t know how events in this particular Terminator timeline have unfolded. Maybe John died as a child, and when Skynet eventually rose to power, whenever that was, Sarah was forced to take over as The Resistance figurehead. If that’s the case, then that could further validate the idea that Sarah could meet her demise fighting the new threat that’s surfaced in Dark Fate, leaving her role as Resistance leader to be taken over by another.

It’s no secret that the Terminator franchise has seen better days, so bringing back Linda Hamilton could be a good way for Terminator: Dark Fate to partially recapture that magic from the first two Terminator movies. However, we have no idea yet how big her role will be, and if this indeed is a transitory moment for the franchise, then perhaps Dark Fate will bid adieu to the old guard. If this is the last time we see Sarah in a Terminator movie, fingers crossed that her return and final moments are anywhere near as memorable and iconic as she’s been for the sci-fi and action genres.

Terminator: Dark Fate opens in theaters on November 1. Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on the production, and don’t forget to look through our 2019 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out this year.

James Cameron may be hard at work on the upcoming Avatar sequels at the moment, but that’s not stopping him from getting fans excited for the return of the Terminator this fall. After calling the upcoming action flick Terminator 6 for some time, Cameron is making it somewhat official with an update on the title. Here's what he said:

Exciting! The title gives us something to work with in terms of what to expect from the next Terminator movie. Dark Fate gives the film… well an implied "dark" tone. The use of the term "fate" certainly plays well into the time travel element of the Terminator franchise and stirs up a few chills about what exactly this "dark fate" will be. But remember, as the Terminator franchise has taught us, "There's no fate but what we make for ourselves."

Per James Cameron’s words to Yahoo! Entertainment, the title isn’t quite official yet, but it’s certainly an intriguing development for the film, straight from the man who started the franchise back in 1984. Although he only serves as executive producer on this project, Dark Fate will mark the first time he will be involved in a Terminator movie since 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Deadpool director Tim Miller is helming Terminator: Dark Fate and the movie is set to star Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, along with two new leads played by Mackenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes, with Gabriel Luna as the new Terminator. The movie will also will ignore every Terminator sequel after Judgment Day. James Cameron also told Yahoo! this:

James Cameron knows what the fans want! Seeing Linda Hamilton back in action as Sarah Conner for the first time in almost 30 years is likely worth the price of admission on its own. It's hard to imagine how she could be even more hardened than in T2, though, and don't even start with "likable." She's an icon. His comments also make it sound like the installment might set things up for the franchise to continue through the new cast… which has failed in the past (cough cough 2015’s Terminator Genisys). But with more original collaborators on hand, the next time could be the charm.

Terminator: Dark Fate -- the title for now, and maybe for good -- is coming to theaters on November 1, 2019.

2015’s Terminator: Genisys may not have been a successful reboot starter, but if we’ve learned anything from Arnold Schwarzenegger… he’ll be back. Deadpool director Tim Miller has taken up the next installment of Terminator coming at the end of the year. Here’s a new behind-the-scenes look at the Terminator 6 cast and crew’s shoot in Hungary:

You’ve heard it from Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, another Terminator is coming! The video from the Hungarian National Film Fund opens with Tim Miller gushing about how great it’s been working in the studio in Budapest. Schwarzenegger then makes an appearance to talk about how he’s worked there before in the late ‘80s but it's improved since then more studios and technology available.

More importantly, as he speaks in one shot, he looks to be filming a scene with an adorable dog. Dogs have a certain significance in the Terminator universe. You may recall that the Resistance used sniffer dogs to identify Terminators. The clip also shows Arnold Schwarzenegger reuniting with Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. Hamilton is returning to play her badass character for the first time since Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991.

The video then turns its appreciation to film producer and Hungarian native Andy Vajna, who served as an executive producer on past projects from the franchise -- including Terminator Salvation and the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles; he also worked on the second and third Terminator films.

Throughout the video, you can spot some of the other main cast members of Terminator 6 hard at work, such as Mackenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes, who will play two new leads in the upcoming film named Grace and Dani Ramos, respectively. Additionally, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’s Gabriel Luna will play the new Terminator, and has been mentored by Arnold Schwarzenegger in preparation.

It’s an exciting little sneak peek at the upcoming film, though it seems to serve more as a commercial for the Hungarian studio they shot at more than anything. It does incite some intrigue from fans and gets us excited for more news to come leading up to the action flick’s November release.

Terminator 6 will ignore the most recent three films -- Rise of the Machines, Salvation, and Genisys -- and move forward the story established by James Cameron in the first two films, which were arguably the strongest of the bunch. Cameron is returning for the first time since the second film as producer and has brought along Linda Hamilton as well, now a “seasoned warrior," reminiscent of Jamie Lee Curtis’ recent return to the Halloween franchise last year.

Arnold Schwarzenegger will be playing T-800 again, and has teased the potential of playing the human character who was the basis of the Terminator prototype, though he might have been throwing us off with ideas.

Are you excited for the upcoming Terminator film? You can read more about what we know so far, in our guide. It comes to theaters on November 1, 2019 alongside the Charlie’s Angels reboot.

With the trend of nostalgia helping to dictate the film and TV world, what is old is new again. Plenty of properties have returned in the past few years, and soon moviegoers will return to one of the most beloved sci-fi franchises of all time: Terminator. An untitled Terminator 6 movie is currently in production, bringing back OG franchises stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton. While Arnold has come in and out of the franchise, Hamilton's Sarah Conner hasn't been seen since James Cameron's iconic Terminator 2: Judgment Day-- the undisputed fan favorite installment. Fans are eager to see the dynamic duo reunite, and now Schwarzenegger has shared an image from the set that is sure to give you all the feelings.

Now this is awesome. Not only are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reunited, but they went so far as to recreate an image of the actors from the 1990s. As if fans of T2 weren't already excited for the upcoming sequel, this is a reminder of just how great that iconic sequel was.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent Instagram post is just the latest peek into the Terminator 6 set that the actor has shared with his generations of fans. Schwarzenegger is clearly psyched to be returning to his most iconic role, especially given the upcoming sequel's new timeline-- with both Linda Hamilton and James Cameron involved in one way or another. While it seems Sarah Connor will be a major role, Cameron is being credited as a producer on the upcoming sixth sequel. Now the question is: what will it be about?

Not much is known about the upcoming sixth Terminator movie, including its title. The movie will be a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, ignoring the handful of time altering sequels that followed in the decades since its release. A similar move was done with Blumhouse's Halloween, giving the filmmakers the freedom to craft a new narrative, while also simplifying a complicated canon for moviegoers. The Terminator franchise has been going strong since the original movie hit in 1984. As such, it's a good idea to make the property a bit more user friendly.

Fans of the Terminator franchise are especially eager to see the characterization of Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor. In her first two movies, the mother and survivor had a giant arc. It's been decades since she was last scene, and Sarah has likely gotten even more hard and strong in the process. The first images show her alongside mysterious new characters Grace (Mackenzie Davis) and Dani (Natalia Reyes), making it clear that the future of the Terminator franchise is female.

All will be revealed when Tim Miller's Terminator 6 arrives in theaters on November 15, 2019. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

If you've been paying attention to the world of TV and film, you'll see that the trend of nostalgia is still very much in the fabric of the business. And with nostalgic projects proving endlessly profitable and popular, it seems like just about any project could return from the dead. This includes the Terminator franchise, which is returning after its less than stellar performance in Genisys. Arnold Schwarzenegger will once again be back (he told you he would!) to play the titular robot, but hardcore fans are most excited to see the long awaited return of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. Hamilton has been MIA in the franchise since T2, and now we've got our first official look at Sarah's return. And she's a badass.

I'll give all the Terminator fans out there a few moments to collect yourself. Because seeing Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor with a shotgun is enough to get even the most casual moviegoers psyched. Her return is years in the making, and it looks like Sarah is not going to be playing around when she finally returns for the upcoming sixth installment.

This new Terminator photo shows an older, although still thoroughly badass, version of Sarah Connor. After being a bit of a victim in the first film, Terminator 2 revealed that her survival of the original attack had forever changed her. Sarah was a gun toting killer in the second movie, and it should be fascinating to see where the character goes when she finally pops back up in Terminator 6. What happened to John? How has she survived so long? All will be answered when the next Terminator flick arrives in November of 2019.

While fans will be primarily focused on Linda Hamilton's sweet new do and heavy weaponry, Sarah Conner is sharing this official photo with two newcomers to the franchise. Taking center stage is actress Mackenzie Davis, who sci-fi fans know from her work on Blade Runner 2049 and The Martian. Her character is still unnamed at the time of writing, but she's been teased as a super soldier who uses her abilities as an assassin. In stark juxtaposition to Linda Hamilton's Sarah Conner, the character is armed merely with a pole, which will hopefully have some epic and bloody scenes when the new sequel arrives in theaters.

The other newcomer in the new photo is actress Natalia Reyes, who will be playing the character Dani Ramos in Terminator's newest sequel. Her character is another one being kept under wraps, but her inclusion (and this photo) tease one thing: the future of the Terminator franchise is female. Dani's shirt also indicates she was working at a mechanic shop, so it's unclear how these three femme fatales eventually cross paths. But it's not going to be pretty for any robots who get in their way.

We'll be able to get more information about Linda Hamilton and the upcoming Terminator as its release slowly approaches. The untitled Terminator 6 movie will arrive in theaters on November 22, 2019. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Many years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger made the initial promise, in character as The Terminator, that he'd be back. And he delivered on that promise, time and again. But SHE only returned once... and once wasn't enough for fans. Which is why it brings us tremendous joy to share this badass photo of original The Terminator co-star Linda Hamilton from the set of director Tim Miller's currently untitled Terminator 6. Sarah Connor is back, folks!

These photos, shot and shared by TheTerminatorFans, show a blonde and incredibly fit Linda Hamilton in battle fatigues and savage aviators, ready to bring the fight to whatever adversary gets in her way. We don't know the man she's walking with. This appears to be a shot of Hamilton on set, but not necessarily in a scene. But it shows off an updated look for this iconic version of the character, who Hamilton last played in James Cameron's masterful T2: Judgment Day.

What will this movie be about? Details are being kept under lock and key at the moment, though it is believed that Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger -- while both returning to the series -- will be supporting characters, bolstering new leads. Blade Runner 2049 standout Mackenkie Davis has been cast in the film, and set photos released of her suggest a militaristic protector character, possibly in the Kyle Reese mold. And Gabriel Luna has been cast as this new film's Terminator, though whether he's working with Arnold's T-800 or against him remains to be seen.

Tim Miller (Deadpool) appears to be continuing a recent trend of creating a story to references a past movie, but overlooks other sequels that followed in its wake. For example, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride's Halloween is a direct sequel to John Carpenter's original that plans to ignore all of the other Halloween movies that came after it. We don't know for certain how Miller's Terminator will treat movies like Terminator Salvation or even Genisys, but the inclusion of Linda Hamilton suggests that this movie will build off of 1991's Judgment Day, while overlooking the rest.

Now we have to wait and see just how involved Linda Hamilton will be in this new plot. Recently, Jeff Goldblum returned to the Jurassic Park franchise, and was featured prominently in the advertising campaign for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Then, he was hardly in the movie. We doubt Tim Miller would bring Linda Hamilton back for a glorified cameo. If you have a badass warrior like Hamilton, you make use of every skill she brings.

The idea of Linda Hamilton collaborating on a Terminator story from the mind of James Cameron, with the director of Deadpool at the helm, has us more than a little excited. We'll continue to track the movie's progress, now that production is underway.

If you've been paying attention tot he world of TV and film, you'll notice one trend is ruling the day: nostalgia. And since nostalgic revivals and sequels proving very profitable, just about every property is getting in on the action. This includes the legendary sci-fi franchise The Terminator. Because despite an attempted reboot with Genisys, the franchise has been stagnant since its 2015 release. But another film is now in the works, with original cast members Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton returning to work alongside producer James Cameron. And now we know when the film will likely start filming.

According to Omega Underground, the untitled sixth Terminator movie will begin filming this coming March. The film will also reportedly be filming in quite a few international locations, including Budapest, Hungary, and Spain. This news was on a production listing for the upcoming shoot, revealing a bit more about wha to expect when the Terminator keeps his promise and comes back.

This news goes along with what franchise star Arnold Shwarzenegger has been saying about the upcoming Terminator movie. He'd previously guessed that the filming would begin this March, so it looks like the Governator is a trustworthy source of information about the sequel. Between Terminator 6 and the new Conan the Barbarian movie, Schwarzenegger has quite the busy year ahead of him. So I guess his short run hosting The Celebrity Apprentice isn't exactly at the forefront of the actor/body builder/politician's mind.

The next Terminator is going to be a game changer for the franchise, as it goes back to its roots. It will be a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgement Day, ignoring the various other timelines and films that have convoluted the property. T2 is largely considered the strongest entry from the franchise, and the diehard fandom was thrilled to learn that Linda Hamilton will be reprising her role as Sarah Connor for the first time since the 1991 sequel. Arnold Schwarzenegger will one again play the deadly robot, and it's unclear if any of the other original actors will be returning. Former child actor Edward Furlong (aka John) still does occasional acting projects, and Robert Patrick has expressed his interest in returning as T-1000.

It's currently unclear where the narrative of the new Terminator film will take the franchise, but it will hopefully take the property back to its roots. With James Cameron helping to produce the project for the first time since Terminator 2, the new film will hopefully feel like the final chapter in an original trilogy. And considering how Cameron has taken umbrage with female heroes like Wonder Woman, Sarah Connor will probably be a force to be reckoned with in Terminator 6.

The untitled sixth Terminator film doesn't currently have a release date, but we'll be sure to update you as details become public. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your trips to the movies in the New Year.

Following Terminator Genisys' disappointing critical and commercial performance in 2015, plans to continue this iteration of the series were scrapped. Now to get the Terminator franchise back on its feet, the man responsible for its creation, James Cameron, will be working with Deadpool's Tim Miller on a new movie. Along with Arnold Schwarzenegger coming back, this new Terminator entry will see Linda Hamilton reprising Sarah Connor nearly 30 years after Terminator 2: Judgement Day's release. According to Cameron, he lured Hamilton back into this science fiction world by saying that the new movie will remind the public what a badass action heroine Sarah is. Cameron recalled:

Aside from recording a vocal cameo for 2009's Terminator Salvation, Linda Hamilton hasn't been involved with the Terminator franchise since Terminator 2, James Cameron's second and final directorial outing with the franchise. While the idea of traveling back to this world of killer machines and apocalyptic futures may have sounded weird to the actress at first, clearly Cameron's persuasion wiped those possible doubts away. Her return is remarkably similar to how Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford appeared in Star Wars: The Force Awakens more than three decades after Return of the Jedi. Tim Miller, who is directing the new Terminator movie, also told THR that he believes Sarah Connor appearing as a seasoned warrior in this story will make a "huge fucking statement."

Rather than follow the events of Terminator Genisys, the new Terminator movie will be a direct sequel to The Terminator and Terminator 2. So even though Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines revealed that Sarah died of cancer in 1997 (after the original Judgement Day had passed without any problems), that's now being ignored in favor of an alive and well Sarah jumping back into action for this new tale. No specific plot details for the next installment have been released yet, although in addition to Arnold Schwarzenegger potentially playing an older T-800 model (like he did in Genisys), James Cameron has expressed interest in having the actor play the man who inspired the look of those particular cyborgs agents.

The new Terminator movie will be released in theaters on July 26, 2019.

The Terminator franchise is about to come back in a big way...again. At the beginning of this year, it was announced that after decades away from the property he created and with the film rights soon becoming his again, James Cameron would spend his non-Avatar work time producing and consulting on a new Terminator movie. Directed by Deadpool's Tim Miller, this Terminator installment, a.k.a. Terminator 6, will see the return of not just Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Linda Hamilton as well, who last appeared in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Right now, the plan is for this new Terminator movie, to kick off a trilogy should it perform well, but Cameron and the rest of the creative team would be wise to keep this as a one-and-done tale. Because just like how Skynet views the pockets of humanity that fight back against it, the Terminator franchise has outstayed its welcome, and it's time to deliver an actual ending.

Most Terminator fans will tell you there's no beating James Cameron's original two films. Not only The Terminator and Terminator 2 both thrived as science fiction classics on their own, together they make an excellent duology. And while Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines didn't earn the kind of acclaim its predecessors did, it did receive many positive reviews upon its release in 2003. However, since then the Terminator series has desperately tried to set up stories intended to last an entire trilogy, but that hasn't been accomplished yet. This started with 2009's Terminator Salvation, the prequel/sequel that followed the older John Connor leading The Resistance against Skynet and learning about human-looking Terminators. Salvation's sequels never ended up happening due to a combination of the negative reception to that first movie and The Halcyon Company filing for bankruptcy.

Six years later, Terminator Genisys attempted to reboot the franchise Star Trek-style by pairing Sarah Connor with an older Terminator, and then having those two and Kyle Reese travel to 2017 to stop Skynet (as that was the new year the artificial intelligence was set to be activated following the timeline change), only to discover that the adult John Connor had been turned into the T-3000. Genisys earned worse reviews than Salvation, and even with the help of the Chinese box office, it wasn't able to break even. By January 2016, Genisys' sequel was taken off the schedule, and a few months after that, it was dead.

Which brings us to Terminator 6, which we now know will ignore the events of Terminator Genisys. No plot details have been revealed yet other than it will involve Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor still being alive and Arnold Schwarzenegger possibly playing the man who inspires the look of the T-800 model. And once again, there's this belief that the new movie should set up potential sequels. But enough is enough. The Terminator franchise has tried to launch new trilogies twice so far, and both times that failed. Some of you might ascribe to "the third time is the charm," but not every franchise is meant to go on, and for Terminator, the time has come to step away.

Look, we get it. The Terminator franchise clearly likes presenting Judgement Day as an inevitability. No matter what changes are made to the timeline, time finds a way to correct itself to make sure that A.I. becomes sentient and launches nukes. But after more than three decades, it's time for the Terminator film series to be retired. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't getting any younger, and it's now at a point where even though he's in good shape for a man his age, he can't keep going on being the primary face of these robotic menaces. Now with Linda Hamilton returning to the franchise, Terminator 6 has an excellent opportunity in full view: to end this saga with a true bang. No cliffhangers, no post-credits scenes, just a straightforward ending that closes this saga for good, ideally with Skynet's permanent destruction.

If James Cameron and his creative partners are still eager to keep the Terminator mythology going in a way that's separate from the main canon, I would suggest moving to television, but given what happened with the taken-too-soon Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, that would also be risky. Then again, given how much TV has changed in the right years since Sarah Connor Chronicles was cancelled, maybe a new Terminator show could find success on cable or a streaming service. Whether or not that happens, the people working on Terminator 6 should divert their focus from setting up a new trilogy and use the talent they already have to conclude this cinematic series in the best way possible. Giving the public a movie that's echoes the original two Terminator movies rather than its follow-ups is the goal to strive for, and if/when that's accomplished, leave this world of killer machines behind and don't look back.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on what's happening with Terminator 6 as they come in, and don't forget to look through our 2017 and 2018 movie premiere guides to see what's heading to theaters over the next year.

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