James Cameron Explains Aging Arnold In Terminator: Genisys

A new Terminator film called Terminator: Genisys had the help of James Cameron, who directed the original Terminator and T2: Judgement Day, with advising. Now it looks like he had more of a role, as he revealed to Deadline.

“I wasn’t interested in producing it or working on it actively, but I did want to put in a good word for Arnold. I pointed out that the outer covering (of the Terminator) was actually not synthetic, that it was organic and therefore could age. You could theoretically have a Terminator that was sent back in time, missed his target, and ended up just kind of living on in society. Because he is a learning computer and has a brain as a central processor he could actually become more human as he went along without getting discovered.”

I never thought of it that way. If indeed this is an old model living in our time, I wonder how it ended up here (all the Arnold terminators living in our time have been destroyed from the first film to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines).

In an interview with Empire, Cameron said he’s not worried about the outcome of Terminator: Genisys.

“It’s not my problem! It’s like being a grandparent, the kids come over and you can send them back! When I walked away from the franchise, I had to do it with the sense that I can invest in emotion. To me, it’s all upside, because if it’s good, it’s good for Arnold [Schwarzenegger], my friend Laeta [Kalogridis] and if it’s not good? It doesn’t bother me personally.”

However, he is hoping that the film would be great.

“I’m hoping it’s great. I’d like them to get it right, and based on the script that I read there’s a pretty good chance that it could. It looks like it could be fun.”

Will he ever return to direct the Terminator series?

“I haven’t really thought that far ahead yet. I’ve got plenty of time to think about it. It might be fun to completely re-invent the franchise. A lot has to do with what happens with it in the meantime, people may have Terminator fatigue.”

Terminator: Genisys hits theaters on July 1, 2015.