Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 in Terminator: Dark Fate Is Named Carl

The T-800 portrayed by returning Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator: Dark Fate is named “Carl,” it was revealed during Thursday’s Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

In exclusive footage unveiled at Comic-Con, the robot-slaying Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) says she’s “never” going to call the Terminator by his given name and promises to kill him after they wipe out another pursuing Terminator (Gabriel Luna).

“I understand,” Carl says.

Returning producer James Cameron, who issued a video message to fans from the set of his multi-movie Avatar epic, promised a role for franchise veteran Schwarzenegger that was unlike any seen before — including his heroic turn in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

“If I was gonna do it, I wanted Arnold in… What do we do with the T-800? How do we create a new character for him, something no one has ever seen before?” Cameron said. “I think we came up with something pretty good.”

Schwarzenegger and Hamilton’s reunion in Dark Fate comes as they return to their most iconic roles in a sequel-slash-reboot ignoring the maligned sequels that followed Cameron’s 1991 blockbuster T2, Hamilton’s last big screen involvement with the franchise.

“It’s absolutely incorrect to say I don’t need to come back,” Schwarzenegger said.

“Of course I need to come back! I’m addicted to Terminator. Terminator is the movie that really launched my action movie career. I did Conan the Barbarian and then Conan the Destroyer and then Jim Cameron came to me and said, ‘I want you to do Terminator.’ From that moment on, everything changed in my life.”

Because of the career-shaping role, Schwarzenegger added, “I feel very indebted to Jim Cameron for having created that character.”

And of re-teaming with Hamilton under Deadpool director Tim Miller, “I think that you’ll be really surprised at this movie because it’s unbelievable and I was blown away when I saw it three weeks ago for the first time,” Schwarzenegger said.

Terminator: Dark Fate opens November 1.