Since 1992’s iconic T2: Judgment Day, filmmakers have been trying to recapture that lightning-in-a-bottle moment of one of the greatest movies of the '90s and one of the best sci-fi films of all time. The Terminator franchise has never lacked ambition, but it has struggled to move forward. With each new movie comes the promise of a fresh take, but many end up recycling the same familiar beats. That's why it’s cool to hear someone with Noah Hawley's resume explain how they’d move forward with the series. The novelist and showrunner pointed out one major problem with the franchise, which I totally agree with, and how he’d improve it.
Hawley, best known for hit peak TV shows like Fargo and FX hits like Legion, and now Alien: Earth, all streaming with a Hulu subscription, recently discussed the broader challenge of adapting beloved franchises in an interview with Business Insider. When the conversation turned hypothetical, Hawley was asked what he might do if he ever took a crack at The Terminator, and his answer zeroed in on what feels like the series’s most stubborn problem. According to the Lucy in the Sky screenwriter:
The question becomes, what is in there in your mind that hasn't been explored thematically? You have got to get out of the character loop of, 'Someone is sent back to protect someone.' You can't do that again unless you figure out a way to invert it or innovate.
It’s hard to argue with that assessment. Since Terminator 2, nearly every sequel and reboot has been built around the same core mechanic with diminishing returns. The only outlier was 2009’s Terminator: Salvation, which ditched that formula but still failed to create a story that resonated with longtime fans. Since then, the result is a franchise that feels stuck reenacting its greatest hits instead of asking new questions.
What makes Hawley’s comments especially compelling is his track record. When he adapted Fargo for television, he didn’t try to remake the Coen brothers’ film; instead, he used its themes, tone, and moral ambiguity as a foundation. Legion did something similar with the X-Men, stripping away traditional superhero movie expectations to explore mental illness.
That approach is precisely what The Terminator has been missing. The original films weren’t just about killer robots. They were about fear of technology and humanity’s tendency to create its own destroyers. But over time, those ideas were overshadowed by the plot mechanics of time travel. Hawley’s suggestion isn’t to abandon time travel altogether, but to stop treating it as the point of the story.
His philosophy seems to center around the simple question of whether the story still works without the franchise branding. If the answer is no, something’s wrong. Applied to The Terminator, that means finding a narrative that stands on its own, then layering the sci-fi elements back in.
That could mean exploring life after Judgment Day in a grounded way, or examining the moral compromises humans make in a war they believe they’re destined to lose. It could even mean shifting perspective entirely, telling the story from a place the franchise hasn’t touched yet.
At this point, The Terminator doesn’t need another remix of what already worked, but much like Hawley has done with Alien: Earth and filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg did with Prey, and its follow-up, the 2025 hit Predator: Badlands, the series needs someone willing to take serious creative risks. If The Terminator is ever going to feel vital again, it may need the very thing Hawley keeps chasing in his own work—innovation over imitation.
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