Deadly assassin robots from the future beware! Linda Hamilton is returning to the Terminator franchise.
The Hollywood Reporter is stating that franchise creator James Cameron reevealed at a private affair earlier this week that the actress who starred as Sarah Connor, a waitress destined to give birth to a future leader of a human rebellion against robotic overlords, in the first two installments of the franchise will be returning for the latest attempt to reboot the iconic science-fiction action series.
[A]s meaningful as she was to gender and action stars everywhere back then, it’s going to make a huge statement to have that seasoned warrior that she’s become return. There are 50-year old, 60-year old guys out there killing bad guys. But there isn’t an example of that for women.
Both Hamilton and Cameron were not involved with the Terminator features that followed 1991’s Judgement Day, and the drastic dip in quality showed. Although he is not directing this new film, Cameron assembled a writers room to help plot out a new trilogy of films which would ignore the previous sequels and which would tell one big story while standing on their own as individual movies.
The news of Hamilton’s return to the franchise follows closely on the heels that Jamie Lee Curtis is returning to the horror franchise that launched her career, Halloween. I have to wonder of we are seeing what could be a positive effect from the huge response Wonder Woman got with audiences this past summer. Studios are bound to be looking at their properties to see what they have featuring strong female protagonists. Add in the nostalgia factor of bringing back the original actress who played that role and helped the franchise achieve its initial popularity like Curtis and Hamilton have done, and you have something that looks pretty potent to the bean counters who run things these days.
With Deadpool director Tim Miller at the head of production for this new Terminator film, I really doubt that Hamilton’s return to her iconic Sarah Conner role will be quite as cynical as that. All I know is that it is something that has me looking forward to a Terminator film, and that hasn’t happened in a long time.
