SAN DIEGO •Action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger will be back for Terminator: Dark Fate because he is "addicted" to the killer cyborg franchise that launched his career - but it was the return of actress Linda Hamilton that stole the show at Comic-Con on Thursday.

Hamilton, 62, reprises her role as Sarah Connor - whom she depicted in the 1984 original, but left after Terminator 2 (1991) - and age does not seem to have slowed her down.

Exclusive footage from the sequel showed an athletic Hamilton leaping from a vehicle to confront two super-powered, shape-shifting robots with an array of weapons. "My name is Sarah Connor. I hunt Terminators," she announces.

Schwarzenegger and Hamilton discussed their decisions to return for Dark Fate, out on Nov 1, in a panel with director Tim Miller and cast newcomers at the pop culture convention in San Diego.

"It's absolutely incorrect to say I don't need to come back. Of course I needed to come back... I'm addicted to Terminator," said Schwarzenegger, who has featured in four of the five Terminator movies.

James Cameron, who also returns to the franchise as producer for the first time since Terminator 2, appeared via video link. He said his "only caveat" for producing was that Schwarzenegger must return too.

Hamilton said she "really gave it careful consideration" because the first two films felt "very intact".

She ultimately decided that due to the passage of time - both for her character and her own real-life experiences - she would come back to "rock it as a woman of a certain age".

"One day I woke up and I was like, you know what, I can no longer worry about trying to be what I was because I am so much more than I was. And that was the moment I realised I really wanted to be on board with this, that the richness of my life experience is only going to enrich the character that I play."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE