The best Terminator movie news since Terminator 2: Judgment Day was announced,- has graced the eyes and ears of Terminator fans and that is that three of the biggest names of the Terminator franchise are returning; James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton! This should be great news but something is really bothering us… “THE PASSING OF THE TORCH”. As one fan said to us on Social Media; “FUCK THE TORCH” and we can understand it. Perhaps a torch does need to be passed… but this feels premature.
We understand that inevitably Actors may be too old to continue the franchise but they’re not dead yet and still in good shape, so we would like to suggest to Mr. James Cameron and Skydance Media that they please consider delaying the “passing of the torch” until Terminator 7.
Delaying the passing of the torch would allow Mr. Schwarzenegger and Ms. Hamilton to take the center stage once again regardless of age (especially considering the lengthy hiatus experienced by Linda Hamilton)… It would also allow Schwarzenegger a Redemption; to redeem himself to the people who cut him down for his age and comedic Terminator performances.
What we could get is a no win situation for everyone, if you pass torches and reduce Arnold to a lesser role in the movie and make Linda Hamilton play second fiddle to an 18 year old leading lady then this could end badly. This also means Arnold is going to play second fiddle to someone else too.
Why could this end badly? James Cameron has aggrivated feminists around the world, we were not going to participate in this discussion but now worrying information about Terminator 6 has come to light it needs to be discussed.
James Cameron, when announcing Linda Hamilton’s return, stated:
“As 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,” he said, referring to aging male actors still anchoring movies, “but there isn’t an example of that for women.”
Some of the big media players are already criticizing Terminator 6 and James Cameron on this new news of Linda Hamilton’s return, somewhat already tainting it; an example of this is from Vanity Fair who said the following…
But will Hamilton be the lead? After all that age-positive messaging, Cameron went on to say that Hamilton and Schwarzenegger will pass on the franchise to a new generation of talent. “We’re starting a search for an 18-something woman to be the new centerpiece of the new story. We still fold time. We will have characters from the future and the present. There will be mostly new characters but we’ll have Arnold and Linda’s characters to anchor it.” This new teen character will, surely, be scrutinized for any whiff of objectification.
Linda Hamilton’s involvement may now be under the eagle eye of feminist scrutiny! Terminator 6 is waiting to be torn to pieces and technically justifiably so after Cameron made those remarks about Wonder Woman; Wonder Woman did have older female cast members which gives even more ammunition to anyone wanting to cut him down and cut down Terminator 6 and they could do so with such ease….
“All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood’s been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided,” Cameron toldThe Guardian. “She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie, but, to me, it’s a step backwards. Sarah Connor was not a beauty icon. She was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit. And to me, [the benefit of characters like Sarah] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female!”
It could be argued that James Cameron did objectify Linda Hamilton in the first Terminator movie with her helpless damsel in distress (slasher scream queen) and topless sex scene- and in Terminator 2: Judgment Day by having her bra-less, any woman going to war is going to want the support and protection of a bra… and we could now be getting some young 18 year old leading lady more or less tarnishing the very act of bringing Linda Hamilton back to the franchise in the first place, she has been replaced on paper before the movie even films, regardless of trending Terminator and #LindaHamilton on Twitter today… We agree with Vanity Fair the age-positive messaging in a world rife with ageism, the message of “age shouldn’t matter” goes out the window and Terminator 6 itself becomes AGEIST. It also sounds like James Cameron is copying Star Wars The Force Awakens *cough* Rey *cough*.
Also it is also worth mentioning that Terminator 6 has absolutely no female writers, a bunch of men are going to be writing Sarah Connor’s role, which isn’t to say they are not capable (William Wisher did it well) but surely the best insight into a woman’s mind comes from the mind of a woman… ?
A huge Terminator Sarah Connor fan said the following to TheTerminatorFans.com on social media regarding the lack of female writers:
Where the hell is William Wisher? Also, you know, a woman or two? Because they’re talking not just Sarah but another woman and maybe it’s time to consider that women actually probably have something to say about women.
The majority of fans do not care that Arnold or Linda are older… they quite frankly don’t give a flying fuck and most of them are very thankful that studios have listened and are bringing them back into the “fold” for the next movie but we don’t want them to play second fiddle to an 18 year old newcomer or younger cast; they should be center stage and the main LEAD characters! Is this prioritizing youth over wisdom and authenticity? We don’t know about you but we want to see Schwarzenegger and Hamilton own the big screen in a big way like they did in the first two Terminator movies. Both actors have many fans worldwide.
Is this turning into good guy Arnold Terminator or human Arnold (already done in novels AKA Dieter Von Rossbach) teaming up with Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor) to babysit Sarah Connor from another timeline or some new character… because this sounds like another rehash of Terminator 2… Obviously it’s way too early to jump to conclusions about the plot of Terminator 6 but just as we get back two of the biggest actors to the franchise… we are passing the torch already? What next, kill Sarah Connor for some emotional gravitas before we even emotionally reconnect with Hamilton’s character again?
We’ve seen a couple of fans calling for, or suggesting, a swan song for Linda Hamilton but we think that would be a mistake and an insult to the fans that have waited so long for her return.
Maybe we’re wrong, maybe James Cameron knows what he’s doing as a producer here *cough* Solaris (2002) *cough* but personally TheTerminatorFans.com feel like the torch passing is just a hastily disguised way of making the old wave fans let go off the past eg. a kind of “shut the fuck up, move on and watch the new wave Terminator movies and stop whining about them”.
You have just brought back the real Sarah Connor and you’ve replaced her before the film even hits production… not cool. We are also throwing Arnold on the Cybernetic Scrap heap by minimizing his involvement to a lesser more minimalist role, if that is minimalist in the way his screen time was in the first movie (perfectly done for a villain role and effective) that works but just reducing it more than that would be an insult to Arnold and his fans.
We don’t know about you but when we go to watch Terminator 6, we are going to watch it for Hamilton and Schwarzenegger,- not the 18 year old new wave talent.
If we are folding timelines… can we swap out the 18 year old for Michael Biehn instead? You don’t even need to alter/cross timelines to bring back Michael Biehn. In T2 Judgment Day they delayed the war… meaning everything was delayed including time travel… meaning in the altered timeline of T2 Kyle Reese can be sent back later eg. Present Day Michael Biehn.
Artwork created on July 30th 2017 to represent the return of Michael Biehn as Older Kyle Reese alongside Michael Edwards as Older John Connor
(decades after 2029).
Skydance and James Cameron can either prove age doesn’t matter and hold off the torch pass until Terminator 7… or face the wrath of angry Schwarzenegger and Hamilton fans and a possible huge backlash of feminist tirades, yes, it works as a marketing device as proven by the Ghostbusters reboot but who is talking or cares about that movie now? The movie was bad but also was a movie surrounded by hate and wars between misogynists, feminists and Paul Feig, which detracted from that movie overall; good, bad or indifferent and this is something that could ruin Terminator 6.
Terminator 6 should be talked about because it is an awe-inspiring movie which throws the question of age aside and not because it contradicts itself at every turn. Terminator 6 should be the game changer; setting the trend, not following it!
Fans are also regularly asking us about the return of Michael Biehn AND Robert Patrick… does that not prove something?
We really want to hear a wider opinion on this! Do you agree with our concerns? Do you think Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton can carry the movie as two lead role characters?
Should the torch passing be held off until the second movie in the new Terminator trilogy? As a fan do you want to get caught up in a whirlwind of feminist and misogynist Ghostbusters “Take the Call” wars,- arguing, horrible memes and the eventual tearing apart of what could end up being the last Terminator movie to star Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton?
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