The ‘Terminator Genisys’ Reboot Series Is Reportedly Dead

According to a reputable source, the Terminator reboot series that Genisys was intended to start is now dead with Arnold Schwarzenegger backing out.

Terminator Genisys - Emilia ClarkeRest easy, Sarah Connor – it looks like the T-800 won’t be back this time. Paramount’s Terminator Genisys was intended to start a trilogy, but it looks as though the much-maligned installment in the long-running action franchise will remain a standalone.

The New York Daily News is reporting that Paramount has terminated Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, and presumably Jai Courtney’s contracts to return to the franchise. A source told the tabloid publication the following:

“It is over for The Terminator and Arnold. The studio has taken the sequel off the production slate completely, meaning there is no pre-production or any plans for another sequel. The talent had been offered long term deals, but this is not happening. The Genisys movie was seen as a way of reviving (the franchise), but the critics were not happy and somehow the studio bosses fell out of love with making more, even though they made huge profits.”

This news shouldn’t be all that surprising, given that we’ve already heard that Paramount previously put a freeze on the other Terminator projects that they had in development following Genisys flopping in the United States (even though a massive level of success in China and overseas helped bail the movie out). Had they not chosen to put the other projects on hold, a sequel would have been released this year. It’s still questionable to say that the movie made huge profits, given that a $441M gross on a $155M production budget does not equal a near-$300M profit, as the article erroneously reports, due to various factors that limit the amount of total profit that a studio actually receives.

Paramount’s currently been circling the drain in terms of studio finances after a pretty brutal 2016 and ongoing corporate drama, so it seems as though they’ll be looking to the Transformers series to be their “Hail Mary” pass to get them in a much better position instead of risking putting money into another James Cameron-less sequel that nobody was really all that thrilled about in the first place. Speaking of him, there’s no word on what effect this will have on the Tim Miller-directed and James Cameron-produced project that’s allegedly in the works, but the short answer seems to be that this just gave them a golden opportunity to move ahead with that project – all they have to do is wait for the rights to revert from Paramount to the series creator. That being said, it does raise the question as to whether or not Schwarzenegger would be up for doing another one – his contract being terminated appears to have been an executive decision rather than a personal decision to leave the franchise for good. Perhaps it might be best for the aging action star to say “Hasta la vista, baby!” if there’s no vision for another great film in the series.

Source: New York Daily News