San Diego Comic Con kicked off Thursday with a grand presentation of Tim Miller’s Terminator: Dark Fate, which will see the triumphant return of Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor after 28 years away from the big screen and act as a direct sequel to T2: Judgement Day. Director Tim Miller famously took on Dark Fate after exiting another sequel: Deadpool 2.
It was certainly a surprising decision considering how successful the filmmaker proved to be with the material, but he reportedly left due to creative differences. Following the release of David Leitch’s Deadpool 2 over a year ago, he was asked about the sequel that got away at Comic-Con. Here’s what he said:
Oh, yeah. I thought it was an interesting evolution of the film.
“Interesting” as a descriptor has a reputation of being used to stay neutral or steer away from sounding negative anyway. It’s all in the verbal response he gave Variety. Check it out:
To Tim Miller’s defense, it is an awkward question. The director had a vision for Deadpool 2 that he had in mind to pursue following the $783 million worldwide box office haul of the groundbreaking superhero flick. Some of his ideas had the Fantastic Four returning to the big screen and Brianna Hildebrand’s Negasonic Teenage Warhead becoming a villain.
Tim Miller left the project in October 2017, after his take on the sequel didn’t match those of the other creatives-- including the film’s star/producer/co-writer Ryan Reynolds. They reportedly didn’t agree on the tone, style and casting for the sequel. Miller has also said he wanted to make a relatively small scale movie again, as he did with Deadpool’s $58 million budget. Fox didn’t go that route as the summer blockbuster cost double the price to make at $110 million.
While Tim Miller’s exit couldn’t have been easy, it ended up to be a win-win situation for Deadpool 2 and its former director. It allowed him to free up his schedule for Terminator: Dark Fate and do something completely new with his talents. Miller is a huge fan of the Terminator franchise, and he described his chance to contribute to it as “unbelievable”.
Terminator: Dark Fate takes the franchise back to its roots in a lot of ways. James Cameron wrote and produced the film after letting go of creative control of the films for years. Along with Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwartnegger is back in a different and mysterious role and Edward Furlong will be back as John Connor. The new cast including Mackenzie Davis, Gabriel Luna, Natalia Reyes and Diego Boneta, all of which will be introduced in the R-rated film.
Terminator: Dark Fate will come to theaters on November 1, 2019.
