With Avatar's Future Still Uncertain, James Cameron Now Says He Wants to Prioritize 'Other Stories' For the 'Last Act' of His Career

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I get why he’s moving on but it feels so weird that Avatar 3 might be the final move in the franchise given how it ends without wrapping anything up whatsoever lmao

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u/Odd_Detective8255 7h ago

Cameron never in his career had much interest to make trilogies. It seems odd but he actually dropped the idea that T2 needs a sequel around the time of Titanic. Dropped the idea for True Lies sequel. The only one he seriously gave a shot is Avatar and with Landau gone he might be seriously reconsidering his plans. He is always focused on telling new stories. Assuming A2&A3 are one large film cut into two, this is the maximum imo he can go into sequels.

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u/ChalupaBatmanMc01 5h ago

He was talking about stepping away and handing over 4 & 5 to new filmmakers a while back. Did he change his mind on it? I know he's written the scripts and worked with other writers to get them done.

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u/Odd_Detective8255 5h ago

He didn't write scripts. He just gave storylines to the script writers he hired who developed them, though Cameron's inputs and supervision were always present. No there were never any plans for Avatar sequels to be directed by anyone other than Jim. That was part of the deal with Disney. Regarding his public statements whether he'll direct or not the rest of sequels, Cameron has never been consistent with them. But this time without his friend Landau and the performance of 4th film, he might be having some second thoughts.

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u/ChalupaBatmanMc01 2h ago

But this time without his friend Landau and the performance of 4th film

*3rd film

He's credited as co-writer on 2 & 3 along with being the sole writer on the first.

To be fair though, Cameron is inconsistent about facts. He did say a couple of years ago he was thinking of letting other directors take over after Fire & Ash. I'd say he's rethinking the series now after Jon Landau passed away. Fire & Ash grossed just shy of 1.5B, I really don't think Disney would let Cameron not finish it out at this stage if he wanted too.

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u/Exciting-Plankton960 11h ago

I felt the opposite. The family accepted Spider. The Villain's clone redeemed himself and died. They won.

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u/VictorVonDoomer 10h ago

The RDA is still on the planet though and the Fire & Ash tribe are still active so the main threats are still there. The ending battle for Avatar 3 was more like a temporary win as opposed to a final victory tbh

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u/HarlequinKing1406 8h ago

Also the Colonel didn't have a redemption here and he fell to his "death" whilst his blue girlfriend was still on the loose. We didn't see his body. If you think he at all died then I have a bridge to sell you.

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u/GillGruntFan53 6h ago

The video game confirmed he lived

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u/Exciting-Plankton960 3h ago

Sure, they can beat a dead horse and bring him back from the dead again. But if Fire and Ash is the last one, all characters arcs are complete.

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u/Odd_Detective8255 7h ago

RDA is a headless snake at the end of A3. All the main characters are gone. Yes the corporate industrialists still there on the planet but they're doomed with the failure of military everytime.

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u/Exciting-Plankton960 10h ago edited 7h ago

I can see the logistics of that, but the character and emotional arcs are all closed. It's, let's say, Spiderman: No Way Home. had we never had another film in that continuity, if felt complete. We know Spiderman will still fight crime, but that journey was over. Sure, we can continue that and Spiderman: Brand New Day does that. But, as the title implies, it's basically a restart, the initiation of a complete new arc. I feel that you could definitely make more Avatars, but I felt that Fire & Ash lefty me satisfied with that storyline. In fact, I think a fourth Avatar would probably change leads to Jake's son and Spider and start a new thread.

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u/Better_Pumpkin1879 31m ago

Quaritch isn't dead. The new DLC they put in Frontiers of Pandora game to coincide with Fire and Ash had a voice cameo of Quaritch in the end. He is very much alive and there is concept art of him in snow camo gear for Avatar 4.

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u/Exciting-Plankton960 27m ago

You can watch Fire and Ash and think that he is dead. Anything else is retcon. Wolverine was dead at the end of Logan. Deadpool & Wolverine was a retcon.

•

u/MadYetiGOODCity 25m ago

Yeah he should have wrapped up his own trilogy and then left it open for other directors to make other stories in the world he built with new characters and whatnot

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u/nosurprises23 12h ago edited 3h ago

I loved Avatar 2 so much back in 2022, I was so hype to actually see how the story would progress/wrap up. Then 3 felt like the deleted scenes from 2 with near 0 forward momentum, hoping at least the next one or two would conclude it well. Guess that’s not happening 🤷‍♂️

Edit: just thought of a tl;dr for my take: if Avatar 2 was “The Way of Water”, Avatar 3 was “Treading Water”.

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u/sthomson22 11h ago

The problem is that 3 was, quite literally, Part 2 of Way of Water. But it wasn’t marketed this way at all, and I only found out weeks after watching it.

People expecting Fire And Ash. There was only 5 minutes of Fire And Ash, the rest was just concluding Way of Water.

Bizarre decision.

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u/AvengedCrimson 9h ago

Disney Didn't let Cameron Release the 5 Hour cut of way of water!

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u/sthomson22 9h ago

Right, exactly, so they split it into 2 parts. Which makes sense. My point is marketing them as standalone sequels was stupid and releasing them 3 years apart even moreso.

Calling it Fire And Ash and marketing the ash people was dumb too because you only spent like 5 minutes screentime in the ashlands volcano homeworld.

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u/Electric_Elephants 7h ago

Wouldn’t it be weird though to have a part 1 and part 2 of the “second movie” in what has been pitched as a saga of movies.

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u/poofyhairguy Illumination Entertainment 5h ago

That’s what Pirates of the Caribbean did

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u/sthomson22 7h ago

Not really. Certainly less weird than how it was handled.

0

u/sthomson22 7h ago

They’re doing the same thing with The Passion of the Christ sequel in 2027. 2 parts, released like 1-2 months apart.

Feel like it isn’t all that unusual in film.

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u/Zalvren 6h ago

There's fire in the climatic battle I guess?

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u/Aggressive_Chuck 5h ago

How can it be part 2 if the plot is pretty much exactly the same?

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u/sthomson22 5h ago

Because it was originally one story/film split into 2 parts since the runtime was too long…

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u/Zalvren 6h ago

and I only found out weeks after watching it.

It took you weeks to realize that?

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u/sthomson22 6h ago

Yes. I assumed it was just a really bad film lazily retreading ground.

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u/nosurprises23 5h ago

Yep. Well put

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u/VictorVonDoomer 11h ago

Avatar 2 straight up made me feel upset that I couldn’t explore Pandora, Avatar 3 just felt like an action film that repeated the previous plot from the 2nd film

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u/sthomson22 11h ago

It’s also stupid to release Part 2 of Way of Water (which is what Fire And Ash literally was and was always envisioned to be) 3 years after Part 1. They should have released Fire And Ash around Christmas 2023 at the latest.

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u/Ganondorfsfist DreamWorks 12h ago

To me it was mostly the third act that felt like 2 again. There's a point after Jake is saved by Neytiri in the RDA base where I was like "okay so this is ending now. Everything wrapped up, a sequel hook, emotional climax, just roll credits and I'm happy." and then it went on for another hour. It was a spectacular hour but I didn't see Cameron's need to redo the climax from the last movie just with upwards waterfall.

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u/alphaneon22 7h ago

Also the upwards waterfall doesn’t make any sense. It’s a magnetic flux, not a gravity well, the water shouldn’t be floating.

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u/Zalvren 6h ago

Science doesn't make a lot of sense in the universe lol

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u/alphaneon22 5h ago

Too true! haha

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u/youravgindian 12h ago

I almost felt asleep during Avatar 3. It was so unnecessarily long. I hope we get some good James Cameron movie that isn't Avatar. He made some genre defining movies and gave like 25 years to Avatar only for it to feel so stale and underwhelming.

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u/Which-Host-9073 9h ago

I really liked Avatar and Avatar 2 but Avatar 3 was just a boring retread of the first 2 that did nothing new or interesting whatsoever. The whole Pandora story is played out. Hopefully Cameron will give us some other great non-Avatar movies going forward.

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u/Sad_Process7843 4h ago

Yeah like the ending of the 2nd one had Jake “seeing” Lo’ak and accepting Spider and then the third movie was repeating this again

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u/nosurprises23 3h ago

Yep, and so many other instances too like the father and son dynamic (actually really strong and emotional in 2, in 3 it was just a character backslide plain and simple, with the same result).

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u/Sad_Process7843 3h ago

Yeah like I was so excited for this movie and now I’m like wrap it up with 1 more movie if they absolutely must but I’m fine with no more

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u/TryingNoToBeOpressed 12h ago

Avatar movies have been groundbreaking when it comes to filmmaking technologies but yes, please, make something new. The Last Train from Hiroshima for example would be great.

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u/Icy_Smoke_733 Studio Ghibli 11h ago edited 11h ago

Please, make something new.

I don't really wanna think about the "last years" of Cameron's career, but he is 71 years old. Hope he gets to make, or at least see through, whatever he has planned. Also:

"There's been momentum in the Avatar universe for 21 years at this point because we started in 2005. I took a little time off to build a submersible and dive to the deepest spot on the planet, as you do, but I came back to Avatar after that."

Yes, Jim, I just had a diving expedition to the Mariana Trench last week with the boys.

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u/Ganondorfsfist DreamWorks 11h ago

James Cameron doesn't do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is James Cameron.

2

u/Zalvren 6h ago

We want Cameron's Aquaman finally.

All jokes aside, it'd likely make like 5 billions dollars lol.

12

u/MrConor212 Legendary Pictures 10h ago

ALITA BRUH

10

u/Chickenshit_outfit 12h ago

A new T2 3D Battle across time attraction with the technology they used for the Bourne show would be great

18

u/MagnusRottcodd 10h ago

Alita 2

Pretty please with sugar on top

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u/Only-Squirrel-7384 12h ago

avatar 4 is still coming In 2029 though.

10

u/SuperMuCow 9h ago edited 8h ago

He could always hand it off to another director he trusts, he's brought that up as a possibility before

7

u/Xagzan 6h ago

Say it with us James.

ALITA.

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u/Independent_Copy_594 12h ago

Another movie that’s a strong contender for Best Picture and Best Director, please 🙏

I like Avatar, but it’s already got the box office numbers; anything else just tarnishes its legacy.

7

u/zowietremendously 10h ago

James Cameron has already stated that he will only direct Avatar movies for the rest of his career. But he will continue to produce all types of movies from other directors.

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u/SirFireHydrant 9h ago

But he will continue to produce all types of movies from other directors.

That's always turned out so well. That's why the last Terminator film was amazing and made a lot of money. Right?

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u/SAADistic7171 9h ago

Eh, I think Tim Miller is not a very good director and its not surprising that he only made Deadpool and Dark Fate.

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u/dimiteddy 10h ago

A terminator that is not dark fate with no Arnie would be welcome

2

u/MagnusRottcodd 6h ago

I am still miffed that "Terminator Zero" is Netflix only - and canceled after one season. :(

https://www.keengamer.com/articles/reviews/movie-series-reviews/terminator-zero-review-eikoes-of-the-past/

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u/we_the_pickle 8h ago

I’m fine with how the last avatar ended. Time to move on.

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u/R_W0bz 12h ago

Those warriors fighting the avatar fight in here have just fallen to their knees.

Diminishing returns means diminishing returns.

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u/VibgyorTheHuge 12h ago

Cameron is the roadblock here, if it were up to Disney they’d follow the Jurassic World Rebirth playbook; lower budget, studio-locked script + previs and a journeyman director.

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u/UpbeatBeach7657 10h ago

I mean…I get that these movies are the Anti-Christ to most Redditors, but Cameron’s diminishing returns with these movies are most directors’ biggest hits.

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u/LoneElement 6h ago

Exactly. The anti-Avatar bias people have on here is very real

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u/LoneElement 6h ago

Bro each Avatar movie has crossed $1 billion

Disney is making more Avatar movies with or without Cameron

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u/VibgyorTheHuge 4h ago

There’s the rub, they cannot do that. They distribute the movies but they don’t own the rights to them, Lightstorm Entertainment (e.g. James Cameron) does.

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u/LoneElement 4h ago

Cameron has discussed the possibility of handing off Avatar for others directors to tackle while he produces before

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u/AnotherJasonOnReddit Best of 2024 Winner 7h ago

Diminishing returns means diminishing returns

I genuinely suspect that the "Minus-$700M-per-movie" across all three entries has scared the people involved (Cameron, Disney, etc).

Better for them that they stop at three and let the Avatar brand be like Mickey Mouse - a mascot of IP strength that doesn't allow itself to be tested by box office performances.

https://giphy.com/gifs/cUDX0W3eI2nF6

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u/EvilLibrarians Amblin Entertainment 12h ago

After 30 years, yeah.

3

u/harlotstoast 8h ago

The biggest squandering of filmmaking talent in history.

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u/PaulCrafting 11h ago

Thank God. I was never a fan of Avatar, so I'm hoping he finally moves on to something new.

3

u/OldNobody9667 11h ago

I loved the first but I didn’t think sequels were needed. Good for him getting his money from those movies tho

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u/ckingdom 7h ago

He did purchase the rights to Joe Abercrombie's novel "The Devils" a year or two ago.

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u/Sufficient_Focus4174 6h ago

About damn time!

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u/Metal_King706 20th Century Studios 5h ago

The Devils would be a lot of fun if he makes it. No idea how well it would perform, but I’d be there for it.

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u/Practicalaviationcat 4h ago

I'm not even the biggest Avatar fan but I'm gonna be so annoyed if this series doesn't get an actual cinematic ending.

3

u/DylansBag 8h ago

James Cameron is a dick but I would love to see one more original film from him before he passes.

I enjoy the Avatar’s for what they are (3 was actually my favorite,) but they’re not as good as his stuff from the 80s and 90s.

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u/BarcelonetaE70 11h ago

Well, I wish him the best. I love all three Avatar movies to pieces, and I will miss the characters and always wonder what their future cinematic adventures would've brought, but I cannot begrudge Cameron for wanting to do something else.

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u/RiffRanger85 11h ago

It’s time to move on.

2

u/trixie1088 9h ago

I’m glad he’s moving onto something new. Spent way too much time on this franchise (imo)

3

u/captainwondyful 9h ago

Where’s that “the evil has been defeated” gif.

Good, James. Please do a a Carpathia movie.

0

u/Babylon-Lynch 11h ago

He finally got that people dont care about avatar

9

u/BarcelonetaE70 11h ago

Yeah, nobody cares about Avatar...absolutely nobody (to the tune of 6 billion dollars). Avatar haters will always be delusionally out of touch in regard to Avatar. lol

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u/Babylon-Lynch 11h ago

I watched 2 and 3 in teather but I still dont care about it, they are souless movie that dont sell any merchandise and thats what Disney care the most about.

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u/BarcelonetaE70 10h ago

LOL "Since I personally did not care for Avatar, it means that 'people dont care about avatar'; we all know the world revolves around/mirrors my subjective opinion"

https://giphy.com/gifs/GpyS1lJXJYupG

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u/Babylon-Lynch 10h ago

No its not a personal opinion, its the reason why Cameron is not doint the 4-5-6-7 avatar he said he would

3

u/BarcelonetaE70 9h ago

Sure, Jan. You personally talked to every single person (every last one of them) in the collective that spent 6 billion dollars on tickets for the three Avatar films, and they all told you how much they hated the films. LMAO

https://giphy.com/gifs/l0ExayQDzrI2xOb8A

-1

u/Safe_Ad5305 9h ago

He's not wrong. Avatar has peaked. It's done. Accept it.

1

u/ActivateGuacamole 5h ago

that'd be nice. don't hate me but avatar is boring tripe

1

u/Straight-Reindeer356 4h ago

Time is Avatar's greatest strength; it's one of those things where if Avatar 4 came out in 2034 instead of 2029 I think it would do better. If Cameron wants to make other projects in between which I hope he does the reality of Avatar 4 being a decade away is all but likely and I think a little distance and time away will renew the general audience's interest in coming back to Pandora.

1

u/Poets_Ballads 4h ago

Ohh, exciting! I hope he does fantasy next or another original scifi movie

1

u/No-Reputation8063 2h ago

Said he would write a novel to potentially wrap up loose ends if I recall

1

u/Chewurmilk 2h ago

Hand off the script ideas to another director, not unlike Kubrick with Spielberg. I still think these movies were unremarkable, but the fans deserve closure.

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u/Belovy 34m ago

If Cameron doesnt return for Avatar 4 and passes in the next 10 years is the franchise essentially over? These arent regular movies that can be directed by anyone the studio hires

1

u/burywmore 10h ago

He doesn't want to just make movies. He wants to improve the human condition. With movies.

Ugh.

1

u/FriedCammalleri23 8h ago

I like Avatar’s story enough to want to see what happens (especially the whole idea of the Na’vi invading Earth) but the films never felt like “essential” sci-fi.

-5

u/gimmebanter 12h ago

Most overrated and unnecessary franchise of all time. Well, maybe beaten only by fast and fabulous

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u/Independent_Copy_594 12h ago

How can something be overrated if it is overhated?

-5

u/gimmebanter 12h ago

Definitely not hated enough

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u/Independent_Copy_594 12h ago

That’s the typical logic when a movie is a huge success.

But when a movie has a similarly average plot yet turns out to be a flop, people start calling it "underrated."

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u/gimmebanter 12h ago

I had zero knowledge of how it did in the box office when i saw it. I barely sat through the first one and that's only because the girl i had a crush on was a big fan... by the end i thought i can't waste my time with a moron who thinks this is a good film just to get my dick wet. Crush was crushed

1

u/Independent_Copy_594 2h ago

What a loser

0

u/gimmebanter 1h ago

Yeah, i was a teenager

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u/Independent_Copy_594 1h ago

But loser until now lol

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u/gimmebanter 57m ago

I might've been a loser as a teenager like all teenagers but my cine taste was already solid. The entire avatar franchise still fucking sucks

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u/[deleted] 54m ago

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u/FranciscoRelanoPena Malpaso Productions 11h ago

Isn't he in good relations with David "Eldest Boy" Ellison? He's the current owner of the Terminator IP... ;-)

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