It seems Arnold is never kidding: he will be back, and with him a new Terminator trilogy. Shortly after announcing the oddly spelled Genisys as the title for the first new Terminator film, Warner Bros. has dates planned out for the sequels. Genisys relaunches the franchise on July 1st, 2015, with the other two on May 19, 2017 and June 29, 2018.
The franchise has been in a sort of limbo since 2010 due to the Halcyon Company offering the rights for sale to get out of bankruptcy. Those rights bounced around quite a bit, but finally got settled with Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures and work began on returning the franchise to its original glory, including a story meeting with James Cameron himself.
The new film has Arnold Schwarzenegger back as a T-800 (as he’s always been), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Sarah Connor (originally played by Linda Hamilton in the movies and Lena Heady, another GoT star, in the TV series Sarah Connor Chronicles), Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard) as Kyle Reese (originally played by Michael Biehn), Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thiry) as John Connor (played by Edward Furlong, Nick Stahl, and Christian Bale), and Dayo Okeniyi as Danny Dyson (son of Miles, a character in the second film responsible for Skynet’s creation). There’s also the return of the T-1000, the liquid metal baddie from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, this time played by Lee Byung-hun (GI: Joe series)
Not much is known about the story, just that it’s part reboot/part continuation, implying they’re going to rewrite some of the events of the previous films due to some wacky time travel business while opening it up for the sequels to flourish. Plus, the upcoming Terminator TV series will be interwoven with the movie, with the show taking a pivotal moment from the first film and giving it a different outcome. A reboot isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the franchise, the 3rd and 4th films weren’t very good nor well-received (I only watch the 3rd one because I consider it a decent comedy). However, the Sarah Connor Chronicles did some rewriting and did it rather successfully, deepening the series’ lore and going places the films couldn’t or didn’t want to, which this new take seems to want to emulate. With that in mind, it’s not crazy to actually to be excited for a new Terminator film.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.