EXCLUSIVE: James Cameron Discusses the Future of 'Terminator' Franchise, Announces Linda Hamilton's Return

A month before revealing Hamilton's return, the director spoke to ET about where the 'Terminator' franchise could go next.

The future of killer robots is here.

James Cameron revealed during a recent private event that Linda Hamilton is attached to his and Arnold Schwarzenegger's planned reboot of the Terminator franchise, The Hollywood Reporter first reported.

In his remarks, Cameron highlighted the importance of Hamilton's tough and badass heroine, Sarah Connor -- who appeared in the franchise's first three films, as well as 2009's Termination Salvation -- returning for the reboot, noting that the aging acting hero is a trope usually only reserved for men.

"There are 50-year-old, 60-year-old guys out there killing bad guys,” he explained.  “but there isn’t an example of that for women.”

In August, Cameron sat down with ET's Ash Crossan to discuss the future of the franchise, and how much the modern era of drones and artificial intelligence will shape the time-jumping, apocalyptic world.

"We have to ask ourselves some fundamental questions: Is there something that can be said in this Terminator universe that hasn't been said -- and is relevant to the world we're in right now?" the 63-year-old director posited. "There's so much in our world that's catching up to Terminator. We have killer robots, they're called unpiloted combat drones ... we're on the cusp of artificial intelligence that could be equal of a human intelligence."

"So we got to start asking ourselves what that means for our existence as a society and for our own sense of meaning," he added.

Basically, Cameron admitted that when it comes to dramatizing Terminator with that lens, things could get pretty bleak.

"This is where fiction comes in," he said. "It allows us to explore different possibilities, so obviously if we were to explore it in a Terminator, the context is all going to be very negative."

The director and his creative team have a long time to grapple with these questions, as the new Terminator won't "be back" until after 2019.

Meanwhile, Cameron also opened up to ET about the one scene he just had to change in Terminator 2. See more in the video below.

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