James Cameron's Heartbreaking Update: Why Arnold Schwarzenegger Won't Return for New 'Terminator'

The 78-year-old actor has starred as T-800 in Cameron’s sci-fi saga since the original 1984 film, but the director has now confirmed the actor will not feature in the next instalment as “it’s time for a new generation of characters” to take the helm of the franchise, reports ‘Female First UK’.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the 71-year-old filmmaker said, “I can safely say he won’t be (in it). “It’s time for a new generation of characters. I insisted Arnold had to be involved in ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’, and it was a great finish to him playing the T-800. There needs to be a broader interpretation of ‘Terminator’ and the idea of a time war and super intelligence. I want to do new stuff that people aren’t imagining”.

While the next ‘Terminator’ film will not feature Schwarzenegger’s titular action hero, it won’t be the first time the ‘Predator’ star has been missing from the franchise, as he had also skipped 2009’s ‘Terminator: Salvation’ when he served as Governor of California.

When asked whether he had cracked the premise of the next ‘Terminator’ movie, Cameron teased he was “working on it”.

As per ‘Female First UK’, the ‘Titanic’ director also confirmed he was looking to return to the ‘Terminator’ series after he is finished with ‘Avatar’.

He said, “Once the dust clears on Avatar in a couple of months, I’m going to really plunge into that. There are a lot of narrative problems to solve. The biggest is how do I stay enough ahead of what’s really happening to make it science fiction?”.

The most recent entry in the ‘Avatar’ series, ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’, is set to debut on December 19, 2025.

- IANS