James Cameron Reloads: New Terminator Script in the Works

James Cameron is about to reengage with his old metal friend. With Avatar: Fire and Ash finally rolling into theaters on December 19, he says that as soon as the press tour winds down, he is diving straight into a brand-new Terminator script. Yes, again. And yes, he knows how tricky that sounds in 2025.

So what is Cameron actually doing?

Talking to io9, Cameron said he has a fat stack of notes for this thing — literally held his fingers about three inches apart to show the pile — which is how he starts every script. Once the Avatar 3 marketing blitz is over "in a month or so," he plans to lock in as the writer on this next Terminator.

"We are living in a science fiction world... I will never be as prescient as I was back in 1984 because nobody knows what the next year or two looks like. But I at least want to future-proof myself by being a couple years out."

If that sounds familiar, it is. About four months ago he admitted he was struggling to figure out a story because real-world tech headlines keep outrunning anything you can dream up. His words then: he did not know what he could say that would not be overtaken by actual events. That is both honest and a little bleak for the guy who made Skynet a household name.

Meanwhile: Avatar rolls on

Avatar: Fire and Ash is up next on December 19. Past that, Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 are still on the books with dates set for 2029 and 2031. Whether he jumps straight from Terminator writing to another Pandora adventure is the open question he is very intentionally not answering yet.

Quick refresher on the Terminator saga (a cursed trilogy habit)

When the rights to Terminator reverted to Cameron a few years back under copyright rules, he assembled a writers room to sketch out an entire trilogy. The plan was to launch with Terminator: Dark Fate. We all saw how that went: the movie underperformed with audiences and at the box office, and the trilogy plan collapsed.

• The writers room included Charles H. Eglee, Josh Friedman, David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray.

And yes, that was the third time a would-be Terminator trilogy fell apart. Terminator: Salvation was supposed to kick off a trilogy. So was Terminator: Genisys. Same pattern, same result.

Where this leaves things

The franchise is clearly not dead; Cameron is back at the keyboard with a fresh take he wants to get right — and he is trying to set it just far enough ahead to avoid getting steamrolled by reality. If nothing else, I am curious to see what a 2020s Cameron sees in the mirror when he looks at the machine he invented.