Schwarzenegger to play a human in Terminator 6, T-800 to get his looks

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Today, the staff over at The Arnold Fans posted excerpts from a live Q&A with legendary director, James Cameron, in which he fielded some questions regarding the forthcoming Terminator sequel.

When asked to elaborate on plans for a sixth film in the iconic sci-fi action franchise, Cameron stated that he’s thought a great deal about where the bad T-800 from T1 got his DNA, look and voice. It appears in T6, we’ll get Arnold Schwarzenegger who plays a HUMAN character in which the T-800 gets his looks. For more on that, you can see Cameron's direct quote posted below:

"Yeah, you got to ask yourself, ‘Why did they make these characters look and sound like Arnold? There has to be a reason. So yeah, it has flashed through my mind that there has to have been a prototype. There has to have been a guy who’s DNA was harvested from – that they grew the organic outer layer that they grew the Terminator from…and that presumably was a real person at some point. Now, the question is, did that person have some sort of meaning to Skynet on WHY they chose that one (Arnold)? Or was it like a whole rack of Terminators and the one that happened to be the Arnold model just happened to be closest to the door going out to the time displacement center and all the others looked different? I’ve asked myself these questions but it’s never been resolved…so stay tuned! We’re talking pretty seriously now about doing some new Terminator films or possibly a trilogy and you’ll just have to see what surfaces in those.”

Naturally, this would be a fantastic solution for the now 70-year-old action star to remain involved with the TERMINATOR 6 without having to do so much of the heavy lifting. It would stand to reason that Arnold's character for T6 would be portrayed as a 35-42 year old behemoth, who wants nothing more than to "borrow" your clothes, boots, and motorcycle. With that in mind, the character's DNA could be extracted, and used years later in the making of the T-800 build. So, I would bank on seeing at least one real Arnold, and perhaps a few CGI versions laying around the Terminator warehouse once the film comes to screen.

Furthermore, when talking about his love of 3D, Cameron stated that he thinks, "Everything looks better in 3D, including Arnold’s muscles (if you’re into that). But the important thing is that the 3D adds so much to the environment, to the action and to the people. You feel more present when you’re watching the film so Sarah feels more real…or the Terminator T-800 feels more real. In terms of Arnold coming back as the T-800, I was already having moral issues with that after the first movie in ‘84, so then obviously I wrote T2 where he’s the hero and when I gave the script to Arnold he hated it. He didn’t hate the script; he hated the idea (of being good) because I hadn’t really discussed it with him, I just dropped it on him and I thought I’d see what he thought. I gave it to him on a plane to Cannes and he literally read it on the flight and he had to get off the flight and announce at the Cannes Film Festival that we were making the movie. Arnold was petrified because he didn’t think it was the right idea. He tried to talk me out of it. But I think he eventually fell in love with the concept and the rest is history. I think he played it beautifully."

Finally, when asked about the possibility of the original TERMINATOR and TRUE LIES getting the 3D treatment, Cameron simply stated that, "We haven’t proved the business case yet. So ask me again in a couple of weeks if T2 Judgement Day in 3D does well. I think the next title on my list in terms of fan enthusiasm would probably have to be ALIENS (before T1). Aliens really seems to hold up in peoples minds so that would probably be the next one. But again, we have to prove the business case he so people have to show up. So SHOW UP!"

Yeesh! I'm not going to be the one to tell Cameron that 3D is steadily going the way of the dinosaur, are you?

For now, Schwarzenegger is saying that cameras will begin rolling on TERMINATOR 6 in March.