Director Alan Taylor will reportedly move from Thor: The Dark World to the fight between machines and humans when he takes on the next Terminator film. Although he is not officially confirmed for the job, during a recent press run the director revealed his thoughts on the franchise and how he would like to draw inspiration from the Dark Knight trilogy to reset the series, which has drifted in recent installments.

“We all love the first two [movies in the franchise] and I actually went back and watched them again, and my respect level only went up,” said Taylor. “I think there is another famous franchise that had a wonderful beginning and then turned a little bananas…Tim Burton’s first Batman is just glorious, and by the time it got around to nipples on costumes and all that stuff, it sort of lost its way. And for [Christopher] Nolan to come in and say, ‘I respect this material so much I’m going to take it up to here,’ that’s a great inspiration.”

Rise of the Machines, the third film in the Terminator series, released in 2003, introduced the first female Terminator. But despite good reviews, it didn’t measure up to its predecessors. The fourth movie, Terminator Salvation, was panned by critics and brought in the lowest box office sales of the series.

Almost every director attached to a quasi-reboot or sequel of a well-established franchise has vowed to follow in the footsteps of Nolan and the Dark Knight trilogy, so we’re finding it a little hard to get excited about Taylor’s plans just yet. What do you think would make the franchise better?