The Terminatorfranchise is one of the most recognizable movie series in the world, and the face of the franchise is arguably what people think of when they hear the title: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger’s depiction as the android killer from the future has earned praise from audiences the world over, as the franchise has brought in $2 billion worldwide. The character has the distinct honor of being the only character listed on both AFI’s 100 Heroes List and 100 Villains, at number 48 as the hero and number 22 as the villain.
Schwarzenegger’s diction has turned lines like “I’ll be back” and “Hasta la vista baby” into some of the most quotable dialogue in film history. Yet despite its pop-cultural omnipresence, the franchise has been in a rough place for years. The movie series is now notorious for having a trilogy consisting of three separate franchise starters: 2009’sTerminator Salvation, 2015’sTerminator: Genisys, and2019’sTerminator: Dark Fate. All three films were an attempt to restart the Terminator franchise, and all three films underperformed at the box office, causing the planned sequels to be scrapped in favor of another approach. Currently, there are no plans for a newTerminatormovie, yet given the popularity of the franchise, it is likely the series won’t stay dead for long.
Which brings the question of how to save the franchise? Legacy sequels likeStar Wars: The Force Awakens,Scream,Spider-Man: No Way Home,andGhostbusters: Afterlifehave found great success bringing back the original actors in their iconic franchise, so it would hint that the series just needs to bringArnold Schwarzeneggerback to bring in audiences. Yet it is more complicated than that, and the key might be to not bring back the established star but reboot the franchise with a new face.
Schwarzenegger Never Really Left
During the production ofTerminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Schwarzenegger had begun an interest in politics. While he postponed his run for Governor in 2002, he eventually ran in the 2003 California Recall Election and took office on August 10, 2025, just a few months after the release of the third film. Schwarzenegger served as Governor of California for eight years and left office in January 2011.
Due to his commitments in office, he could not take on any film roles, but in the meantime, only oneTerminatorfilm was made,Terminator: Salvation,which was released in 2009. While Schwarzenegger does not appear in the film itself, a T-800 model with Schwarzenegger’s face does appear due to the filmmakers using CGI to recreate Schwarzenegger’s likeness. Despite giving his likeness, Schwarzenegger did not have kind things to say about the film, including a blatant and simple statement: “It sucked!”
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Schwarzenegger returned to acting with prominent roles in bothTerminator: GenisysandTerminator: Dark Fate,with both films writing in why the Terminator ages to explain the actor’s changed appearance. So even when he was Governor, it only prevented him from appearing in one Terminator film in a major way, and the filmmakers still found a way to incorporate him.
Bringing Back Schwarzenegger May Have Hurt The Series
While Schwarzenegger had done a number of projects following his stint as Governor, includingThe Expendables 2andExpendables 3,The Last Stand, andEscape Plan,it wasTerminatorthat audiences were waiting for the actor to return to. In 2015, 12 years followingTerminator 3: Judgement Day, Schwarzenegger appeared in the flesh as the T-800 inTerminator Genisys. The movie had a budget of $155 million and grossed $87 million domestically, but did gross $440 million worldwide including $113 million in China alone. While Schwarzenegger’s star power certainly helped overseas, the actor is not the big-name draw he was back in the ’80s and early ’90s.
The film also stands as the worst-reviewed in the series, partly due to the script that works very hard to incorporate Schwarzenegger into the film. The film is wanting to keep continuity withThe TerminatorandT2: Judgement Dayand also acting as a semi-remake of those two films while also getting rid ofTerminator 3: The Rise of the MachinesandTerminator: Salvation,and all those different demands make the movie buckle under its own weight.
Related:Here’s What Makes T2: Judgment Day The Best Terminator Movie
Schwarzenegger returned forTerminator: Dark Fate,which did perform better with critics, but by that point one too many poorly receivedTerminatorfilms caught up with the franchise, and the movie was abomb at the box office. Schwarzenegger’s part is a smaller one, but he is still vital to the film, and while giving a great performance, the movie may have benefited from fully being allowed to embrace a new path separate from the franchise’s past connections.
Scale Down
One of the issues that has been plaguingThe Terminatorfranchise is the apparent need to try and recapture the feeling and box-office ofTerminator 2: Judgement Day, which to this day is still the highest-grossing film in the franchise and shifted the series into a more action-heavy approach. All four subsequent films have gone for the big scale action and massive budgets ofTerminator 2: Judgement Daybut have faced criticism of just repeatingT2,and have all earned less and less money domestically with each subsequent release (though internationally, the franchise has grown).
What the franchise may need is to strip down and go back to the basics of the first film,The Terminator. The 1984 film is more akin to a horror film and was a smaller scale and budgeted movie than the sequels that followed. A newTerminatorfilm budgeted like a horror film has a good chance of returning a profit and helping build out back to where the series could grow in more films. ReturningTerminatorback to its roots may be what is needed, more than a familiar face.
New Blood May Be Needed
Arnold Schwarzenegger is and will always be associated with The Terminator. It is his most popular character and franchise, and he is so closely tied together with it. Yet the novelty of seeing Schwarzenegger return as The Terminator cannot work anymore, as audiences have already seen it done twice in one decade. Those two times did not help the box-office returns onTerminator: GenisysorTerminator: Dark Fate. All sixTerminatormovies have worked in some way for Schwarzenegger to appear, and that might be hurting the franchise more than helping at this point.
The Terminatorfranchise may need to move beyond the constraints of the actor and embrace a new lead, a new status quo, and a fresh approach to stay relevant. While nobody will ever be able to replace Schwarzenegger, a new actor in the iconic Terminator role can start the franchise over on in a unique starting place for audiences to join in. New face, new status quo also means new expectations. Schwarzenegger has been a great Terminator and will remain an icon, but for the franchise to continue, it needs a new approach and a new Terminator.
