Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked the Predator franchise off back in 1987 and hasn’t returned to the series since, and now it’s learned he turned down the latest film in favor of Terminator 6.
“The studio wanted a fresher movie that featured an evolving cast. They didn’t want to hinge the movie on the re-emergence of Schwarzenegger,” director Shane Black told Digital Spy. “It would probably be more of a matter of his showing up briefly and just participating at the very end, at the climax of the movie.”
Arnold actually revealed last year that he wasn’t going to do a new Predator, which Black says he completely gets.
“Understandably – and believe me, I completely get it – he said, ‘Look, that’s kind of a small part, and I don’t really think I want to do that. I’m off to do Terminator with Jim Cameron, basically. Or for Jim Cameron’,” Black explained. “So I totally got it, you know? If I was Schwarzenegger, I’d want to be one of the stars of a film, or nothing.”
Shane Black did note there is always the potential to have Arnold Schwarzenegger back if there is a sequel.
“I even said to him, ‘If you’re in this one, we would open it up for the sequel, because now you’re back in the franchise’,” Black added. “So you know, if there’s another movie, there’s no reason why he couldn’t be either in it, or the star of it, or whatever someone decides at a future date.”
Regarding Arnold Schwarzenegger and Terminator 6, the actor is currenly in Budapest, Hungary for filming and recently announced a contest where a fan can visit him on set. It’s been said this time around the movie will explain why Skynet chose the body of Arnold’s character as the model of their Terminator cyborg killing machines.
Predator gets released this week, with Terminator 6 on November 22, 2019.
