Hedging on more Avatar, James Cameron turns his cybernetic back to Terminator

“I’m working on it,” Cameron tells the outlet. Still, he offers scant details aside from answering the second most obvious question one could ask about a Terminator sequel: Arnold Schwarzenegger will not be in it. After insisting that the former Governor appear in 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate, Cameron says that it’s “time for a new generation of characters.”

“It was a great finish to him playing the T-800,” Cameron continues. “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.”

Howerver, he assures readers that the next Terminator won’t rely on previous sequels, which the “great; a lot of fun” Alien: Earth did in spades. “I’m not criticizing it, but I was there for Aliens, what, 41 years ago? Something like that wouldn’t be of interest to me.”

Sadly, his uncredited Terminator 2 co-writer, Beanie, the rat he resuscitated on The Abyss, won’t be involved. That’s one problem Cameron can’t crack: The lifespan of a rat. “Beanie and I bonded over the whole thing,” he says. “I saved his life. We were brothers. He used to sit on my desk while I was writing Terminator 2, and he lived to a ripe old age. He didn’t seem particularly traumatized, though I know [The Abyss] is outlawed in the U.K. because of ‘animal cruelty.'”