20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About The Terminator Franchise

4. T3 Was Originally Going To Be Shot Back-To-Back With Terminator Salvation

Given that Terminator 3 signalled the beginning of the war between man and the machines, Terminator Salvation is a fairly sensible idea for a sequel, even if it does leap ahead a good decade-and-a-half. If producers had had their way, though, Salvation would have come directly after T3, with the plan originally seeing Rise Of The Machines and Salvation shot back-to-back. Codenamed Project Angel, Terminator 4 was to be made right after Terminator 3, and would have dealt with events taking place immediately after the end of Rise Of The Machines. The film was put on hold, however, when the actors' schedules - including Arnold Schwarzenegger's side-project as Governor of California - got in the way. Project Angel was rewritten (partially under T3 director Jonathan Mostow's supervision) and eventually became Terminator Salvation, while the idea to set the film immediately after T3 was scrapped.