Having put himself on the map with 2016's Deadpool, filmmaker Tim Miller quickly found himself in high demand. When creative differences with Ryan Reynolds resulted in the filmmaker walking away from the Merc with the Mouth's sequel, he set about rebooting the Terminator franchise alongside James Cameron.
The Avatar director had praised Terminator Genisys in a featurette for the disappointing 2015 effort, something he'd later share his regret over due to what a colossal disappointment Alan Taylor's reboot was.
Back to Dark Fate, though, and it received mostly positive reviews from fans and critics but failed to make a notable impact at the box office. Earning $62 million in North America and $261 million worldwide, the blockbuster was deemed a flop and the iconic franchise was put back on the shelf.
Despite being a major improvement over its predecessors - and the fact it featured the fan-pleasing reunion of original stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton on screen - there were still moments which failed to strike a chord with viewers.
Among them was the fact Dark Fate opened with a T-800 gunning down a young John Connor, something Miller has now acknowledged was a mistake while talking to Variety.
"Nobody sets out to disregard someone’s closely held childhood dreams. It’s no cause for vitriol," he tells the trade. "A lot of people didn’t like 'Terminator: Dark Fate' for reasons I had nothing to do with. One, because it was the sixth film and another because we killed John Connor at the start, but if Jim Cameron wants that to happen – which I agree with by the way – then that’s what you do."
For what it's worth, Cameron has previously taken responsibility for Terminator: Dark Fate's failings. "Our problem was not that the film didn’t work. The problem was, people didn’t show up. I’ve owned this to Tim Miller many times. I said, 'I torpedoed that movie before we ever wrote a word or shot a foot of film.'"
He puts that down to "getting high on my own supply" with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a movie that focused heavily on Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, a concept Dark Fate returned to by bringing together T-800 and Sarah Connor...again.
"We achieved our goal. We made a legit sequel to a movie where the people that were actually going to theatres at the time that movie came out are all either dead, retired, crippled, or have dementia. It was a non-starter. There was nothing in the movie for a new audience."
Giving his final thoughts on Terminator: Dark Fate, Cameron said, "I think the film’s cracking. I still think mine are the best, but I put it in solid third."
Cameron is now believed to be working on a Terminator reboot but it's currently unclear when or where we'll see that.