Plans for a sixth Terminator movie still in place after disappointing Genisys

Cast your minds back a few months ago, when the marketing machine for Terminator Genisys was in full swing. 

We were given promises of a new sequel trilogy, a TV series, and various other tie ins.  But then, after the lukewarm reception to the fifth movie in the overall series, it seemed that those plans had been scrapped.

Or have they??

While the movie raked in a dismal $90 million at the U.S. box office, it managed a much more impressive £350 million overseas, which, according to Skydance CCO Dana Goldberg merits a “re-adjusting” of the franchise.

Speaking at TheWrap’s 6th Annual Media Leadership Conference this week, Goldberg said:

“We’re ultimately happy with overall worldwide numbers. Do I wish we would have done better domestically? Absolutely. Happily, we live in the world where the domestic number had a level of importance 10 or 15 years ago – I’m not saying it’s not important, it is – but we have to play to a worldwide market. In terms of ‘Terminator,’ the worldwide market paid attention, but we’re not taking the domestic number lightly.

Do we intend to have a next step of Terminator? Yes, we do…I wouldn’t say on hold, so much as re-adjusting. At Skydance, when we talk movies, we talk universes, even more than franchises. So the idea of a ‘Terminator’ TV show fits into that universe. All the steps have to be taken in unison.

[We’re assembling] data and research to do a worldwide study and really talk to audiences about what they loved, and what maybe didn’t work for them, so that the next we take with the franchise is the right one. We are not going to begin production at the beginning of next year, because again, it would be silly to not have to worry about what audiences have to say.”

Frankly, this worries me.  Personally, I really liked Genisys, while it lacked the edge of the first two James Cameron directed films, it surpassed the so-bad-its-almost-a-parody Rise of the Machines and the misjudged Salvation, and was enjoyable due to it’s connections to the previous movies alone.  But if Skydance really does have a trilogy planned, then surely data mining the audience for what they want to see will mean the original  story of the next two films will be drastically altered, meaning it might not make any sense.  I’m tired of movie studios asking fans what they want, because no two fans will want the same thing.  You can’t please everyone, as we all have our own ideas of what we’d like to see in a Terminator sequel.  Ultimately, the worry is that the Terminator horse that Skydance want to design by committee, will surely end up a camel.

Either way the Terminator will be back… possibly in 2018? 

Source: Dark Horizons