Cancelled Terminator Sequels Would Have Revealed Skynet Origin

In 2015, Terminator Genisys was meant to revive interest in the franchise, but with that film being a financial and critical disappointment, its direct sequels were scrapped, with co-writer Patrick Lussier recently detailing what he had hoped to explore in its sequels, which would have included chronicling the origins of Skynet. The prominence of time travel in the franchise allows its sequels to jump forward and backward to different points in the series, with Genisys marking the first entry into the series since 2009's Terminator Salvation, allowing last year's Terminator: Dark Fate to avoid directly connecting to Genisys, though this doesn't rule out another sequel once again embracing time travel to allow these concepts to be explored.

"We wrote like two drafts of the next one, the direct sequel, and had an outline for the third one, what that would be, that answered all the questions that were presented in Genisys and brought it back around and closed it all off," Lussier shared with The Production Meeting Podcast.

The filmmaker noted that Matt Smith's character, who was introduced in the film, would have played a larger part in the franchise's future.

"They dealt more with how the future and where Skynet comes from and what that sort of time loop is," Lussier detailed. "You know, the Matt Smith character. It became much more of a focus, so they were probably a little trippier and stood away from T2 a little more. Started having their own identity. There's sort of an interesting escaping the fatalistic part of it, how it opened was very cool… who knows? Maybe one day they'll release it as a comic or something."

Sadly, the state of the franchise is currently unclear, despite Dark Fate earning some of the best reviews for the franchise since its debut installments. While the film saw original star Linda Hamilton's first major involvement in the franchise since 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the actress herself doubts she'll ever return, regardless of when the series moves forward.

"Something says to me… I don't know. I would really appreciate maybe a smaller version where so many millions are not at stake," the actress revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. "Today's audience is just so unpredictable. I can't tell you how many laymen just go, 'Well, people don't go to the movies anymore.' That's not Hollywood analysis; that just comes out of almost everybody's mouth. It should definitely not be such a high-risk financial venture, but I would be quite happy to never return. So, no, I am not hopeful because I would really love to be done. But, if there were something new that really spoke to me, I am a logical person, and I will always consider viable changes."

Stay tuned for details on the possible future of the series.

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