To this day, there are a handful of iconic roles associated with the immortal Arnold Schwarzenegger, the most recognizable (arguably) of those being the T-800. Having successfully catapulted the bodybuilder-turned-actor’s career into the stratosphere with 1984’s The Terminator, director James Cameron came back for another round in 1991 with Terminator 2: Judgement Day, sparking endless debate amongst the geek community in the time since as to which film is superior. Personally, I lean toward the original, but appreciate the merits of both.
As time has gone by, several sequels by way of other directors have debuted in cinemas, none of which garnered the acclaim of the first two installments. In fact, both Salvation and Genesys intended on kickstarting new multi-picture arcs, each of which obviously failed to do so. Furthermore, things didn’t go so well on the small screen, with The Sarah Connor Chronicles being cancelled by Fox after only two seasons. But no matter how many entries in this franchise fail to resonate with moviegoers, someone always aims to make a buck off it, come hell or high water.
Having said that, it comes as no surprise that not only is a sixth installment on the way, but that it’ll also disregard the events of all films following the original two. Furthermore, the stalwart that is Arnie has been confirmed to be coming back for another round, causing many to wonder who else from the original two films might return. We already know that Linda Hamilton will be joining Schwarzenegger, which is certainly exciting, but could we see Robert Patrick get involved, too?
The actor, who played the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, was asked if he’d be interested in reprising his role for Terminator 6 during a recent New York Comic-Con panel, and seemed more than happy to jump back into the franchise, saying: “Absolutely! Anybody [asks] me to do anything, return anywhere, I am there.” Of course, that’s hardly a confirmation that we’ll see him show up in the film, but it is nice to hear that he’s into the idea.
As for what we know at the moment, the sixth Terminator movie is a “continuation of the story” from T1 and T2, as James Cameron recently told THR the following:
This is a continuation of the story from Terminator 1 and Terminator 2. And we’re pretending the other films were a bad dream. Or an alternate timeline, which is permissible in our multi-verse. This was really driven more by [Tim] than anybody, surprisingly, because I came in pretty agnostic about where we took it. The only thing I insisted on was that we somehow revamp it and reinvent it for the 21st century.
So, there you have it. Should Cameron come knocking, Robert Patrick would be thrilled to reprise his role. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen, but The Terminator is expected to go before the cameras sometime next year ahead of a potential release in 2019. If everything goes according to plan, it’ll birth a new trilogy with Linda Hamilton, Arnie and maybe, just maybe, Patrick at its core.