She played one of the greatest action movie heroes of all time, but will Linda Hamilton ever return to play Sarah Connor in the Terminator universe? The actress gave an update on the iconic character in a recent interview, and Terminator super-fans might not be happy with what they hear.
Hamilton debuted the role in 1984's The Terminator, first appearing as a damsel in sci-fi distress as Arnold Schwarzenegger's cyborg assassin time-traveled from the future to kill Sarah and prevent her future son—who will lead the resistance movement against the machines—from being born. By 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day (which has some great behind-the-scenes facts and is the best Terminator movie, in our opinion), Sarah Connor is a gun-wielding vigilante trying to prevent the machines from rising and inciting a nuclear holocaust.
We last saw Hamilton as Sarah Connor onscreen in 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate, a direct sequel to T2 set 25 years after the events of that film and saw an older Sarah working with an aging T-800 (Schwarzenegger) and an enhanced super soldier (Mackenzie Davis) to hunt remaining Terminators and prevent Judgment Day. However, five years later, the actress has announced that she's officially saying "hasta la vista" to the role. Speaking to Business Insider, she said:
I'm done. I'm done. I have nothing more to say. The story's been told, and it's been done to death. Why anybody would relaunch it is a mystery to me. But I know our Hollywood world is built on relaunches right now.
Hamilton also took issue with Sarah Connor's icon status amongst movie fans, telling the outlet:
I truly feel like, and felt like, Sarah Connor is not an icon. She's a woman in hell. She makes some really bad choices. She's not a good mother, she's a good fighter! So you sort of try to parse the details out and go 'Well, they respect her strength and her power, and I did create a warrior, but she's very imperfect. She's an imperfect person.'
Linda Hamilton also revealed that it was often hard to grapple with how moviegoers viewed her, as a world-saving "warrior," compared to who she really is:
So it was hard to sort of come to terms with all that and then just go, 'Okay, I can accept it,' because I've heard it now for so many years, people actually treat me like I saved the future...If you could see how utterly hapless I am during my life and my daily life! But it's pretty cute, and I have no complaints, it's delightful.
However, just because we sadly won't see Linda Hamilton play Sarah Connor in a Terminator movie again, we'll still graciously get to see the actress kick butt onscreen in two fan-favorite sci-fi series.
First, Resident Alien Season 3 dropped new episodes on Wednesday, February 14, featuring Hamilton as the alien-hunting General Eleanor McCallister. And, of course, the 67-year-old actress will be joining the Strangers Things cast for the Netflix show's fifth and final season. Info on the season's storylines and on Hamilton's character are being closely guarded, but the star did recently divulge that appearing on the show gave her "imposter syndrome."
However, there's no imposter syndrome with Sarah Connor—you can catch Linda Hamilton as the sci-fi heroine in The Terminator, which is available to stream with a Max subscription.
