‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ Director Tim Miller Reflects On Revival’s Poor Reception: “I Was Wrong” [Comic-Con]

Paramount/Skydance’s “Terminator: Dark Fate” was originally planned to help revive the stale time-traveling cyberpunk string of movies with the hopes that the new installment, that brought back both original stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, would end the Connor Family saga allowing for films to pivot towards other characters in two other potential follow-ups. However, those trilogy plans were paused when “Dark Fate” only managed to earn $261 million globally with a hefty production budget of $185 million, which combined with marketing costs would suggest the film wasn’t able to turn a profit. 

During Collider’s “Directors On Directing” panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, director Tim Miller (“Deadpool”) briefly opened up about his feelings (via Deadline) on the “Terminator” franchise after trying his hand at reviving it with pal James Cameron. 

READ MORE: ‘The Batman’ Co-Writer Mattson Tomlin To Showrun A New ‘Terminator’ Anime Series For Netflix

“‘Terminator’ is an interesting movie to explore, but maybe we’ve explored it enough,” Miller said Friday in San Diego. “I went in with the rock-hard nerd belief that if I made a good movie that I wanted to see, it would do well. And I was wrong. It was one of those f**king eureka moments in a bad way because the movie tanked.”

“Then why aren’t people returning my phone calls?” responded Miller when the panel’s host, Steve Weintraub, asserted their opinion that “Dark Fate” hadn’t tanked. 

Miller wasn’t completely negative about the franchise’s future. “I think if you make a lower cost ‘Terminator’ movie, a good director and movie star could make it great. It could be made with sock puppets and it could be awesome. I’d like to do a Terminator CG.” 

The filmmaker hasn’t kept his thoughts private about making “Dark Fate” and previously stated the creative battles with Cameron, a producer on the film that had a great amount of creative control, were a large part of his frustrations on the sequel. 

At the moment, the only concrete ‘Terminator’ project in the works is at Netflix with an animated series that hails from showrunner Mattson Tomlin. The screenwriter was behind the original superhero film “Project Power” and is also working on a live-action starring Keanu Reeves that is based on his mature comic book, “BRZRKR.”