Release Order Recommended
0 / 7 watchedThe films as they arrived, closing with the undated project Cameron is writing. Recommended, because it is the only sequence containing all six.
Cameron Continuity
0 / 3 watchedThe short path for a first watch: the two Cameron films and then Dark Fate. T3, Salvation and Genisys sit outside this timeline.
About Terminator
James Cameron wrote and directed The Terminator (October 26, 1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (July 3, 1991), then left. Rise of the Machines (2003) and Salvation (2009) carried one branch forward, Genisys (2015) rebooted it outright, and Dark Fate (November 1, 2019) went back to being a sequel to T2 and ignored all three. It grossed $261 million worldwide against a budget near $190 million, which killed the planned trilogy.
Cameron confirmed in December 2025 that he is writing a seventh film as a fresh start, with no Schwarzenegger and no title or date. The franchise also has The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008 to 2009) and the Netflix anime Terminator Zero (2024), both outside these film lists.
Good to know
Release order is also chronological inside any single branch: 1984, 1991, 2003 and 2009 all run forward in time. What breaks is the whole. Genisys rewrites 1984 and Dark Fate erases the three films before it, so no list of all six can be truly chronological. Watch in release order, and treat the Cameron path as the short version.
