Tim Miller’s Terminator: Dark Fate is a sequel that ignores most of the existing films in the franchise. It’s not a huge surprise, given how badly the Terminator series veered off course over the years (let’s try to forget — but never forgive — Terminator: Genisys). Now, star Linda Hamilton is revealing more about why she chose to return after almost 30 years away, and how they’ve “returned to form” with Dark Fate.
In an interview with Collider, Hamilton talked about joining the cast of Terminator: Dark Fate, having last been part of the franchise in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The series continued without her, producing three more films and a TV show over the course of a couple of decades (her character was even killed off at one point). But Dark Fate has chosen to ignore the canon of those films, setting itself after the events of T2. And yes, Sarah Connor is back.
“It took me a number of weeks to decide to do it,” she told the site at CinemaCon. “I just had to think, ‘Did I really want to go back there?’ I kept saying I was retiring a champion after the second one. And then to come back, to be compared to myself 27 years before—that’s always a winning proposition, isn’t it?”
So, what made her decide to stake her claim as the Terminator Slayer once more? Hamilton said it was because she felt she had more to bring to the character who had played such an important role in her life and career. And…it wasn’t those other movies:
“We wanted to keep the storyline clear. I mean, obviously with time travel it can be interrupted at any point, and it just shot off in so many different directions,” she said, later adding: “In terms of narrowing down [to] the characters again that we really care about — instead of just emptying the kitchen sink, and having so many different versions of Terminators and so many different characters without a really cohesive story that keeps you interested — I think that we’ve returned to form that way.”
Hamilton also mentioned it’s been great working with Miller, who helmed the first Deadpool, but said it was difficult getting a sense of the action (which my colleague Germain Lussier praised in the first glimpse of the upcoming film). She said at one point she had to sit back and trust that Miller knew what he was creating in the action sequences, even if she couldn’t grasp what the hell was going on. I guess we’ll all have to wait and see.
Terminator: Dark Fate arrives October 31.