I thought that Terminator: Dark Fate was a decent film, and in my opinion, it’s the third-best Terminator movie that’s been made, but that’s not really saying much. Regardless, the Tim Miller-directed movie did not perform well at the box office making just over $260 million.

Producer James Cameron recently talked about the film during an interview with Empire and he got honest about why he believes the movie failed. In the end, he blames himself.

Despite all of that, Cameron does have some positive things to say, specifically in regard to Gabriel Luna’s Rev-9. He says: “I think the Rev-9 was cool as shit.”

He continued: “Personally, I think that’s as good as anything that we did back then. Our problem was not that the film didn’t work. The problem was, people didn’t show up.”

He then placed the blame on himself saying: “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.’”

Cameron says he started “getting high on my own supply” in creating a direct Terminator 2 sequel, and was leaning too hard into the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s T-800 and and Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor.

He explained: “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.”

He goes on to say, “we miscalculated the whole thing” on Dark Fate. I think the film’s cracking. I still think mine are the best, but I put it in solid third.”

While the movie was fun, it did rehash a bunch of stuff that we’ve already seen. I’m definitely more excited for Cameron’s future plans with the franchise, which sounds like it will be completely different than anything that;’s come before and that;’s exactly what this franchise needs.

Cameroin previously said of the next film: “This is the moment when you jettison everything that is specific to the last 40 years of Terminator, but you live by those principles.

“You get too inside it, and then you lose a new audience because the new audience care much less about that stuff than you think they do. That’s the danger, obviously, with Avatar as well, but I think we’ve proven that we have something for new audiences.”

He added: “You’ve got powerless main characters, essentially, fighting for their lives, who get no support from existing power structures, and have to circumvent them but somehow maintain a moral compass. And then you throw AI into the mix.

“Those principles are sound principles for storytelling today, right? So I have no doubt that subsequent Terminator films will not only be possible, but they’ll kick ass. But this is the moment where you jettison all the specific iconography.”

He went on to say: “It’s more than a plan. That’s what we’re doing. That’s all I’ll say for right now.”