How James Cameron Convinced Linda Hamilton To Return To Terminator

It probably always would've been tricky to lure Linda Hamilton back to the Terminator franchise. But did it help or hurt that she's also the ex-wife of James Cameron?

The creator of the sci-fi franchise told The Hollywood Reporter how he convinced Hamilton to return as Sarah Connor. During an interview with Tim Miller, who will direct the upcoming Terminator sequel, Miller joked that "Jim was f***ing terrified." Cameron responded, "I was. It took me a week just to get up the nerve. No, that's not true. Linda and I have a great relationship."

Cameron said he presented the idea to Hamilton as a chance to show audiences what they've been missing. "I called her up, and I said, 'Look, we could rest on our laurels. It's ours to lose, in a sense. We created this thing several decades ago. But, here's what can be really cool: you can come back and show everybody how it's done,'" he said. "Because in my mind, it hasn't been done a whole lot since the way she did it back in '91."

Hamilton starred as Connor in 1984's The Terminator and 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but neither she nor Cameron returned for three subsequent films.

She's now 61 years old, but Cameron said that only makes the character that much stronger. "[It will] make a huge f***ing statement to have her be the really seasoned warrior that she's become," he said. "There are certainly plenty of 50-, 60-, 70-something guys out there that just keep cranking along doing action movies and killing bad guys left and right. But there isn't an example of that for women, and I think there should be."

Arnold Schwarzenegger will also reprise his role in the upcoming flick, which is based on a story Cameron wrote. 

While we wait for more details, check out a few reboots that worked in a big way.