Speaking recently at 'An Experience with Arnold Schwarzenegger' in Birmingham, UK the action movie legend revealed a wealth of information about the forthcoming movie which will see creator James Cameron return as the screenwriter, creative consultant, and executive producer to the next Terminator movie, which is to be directed by Deadpool director Tim Miller.
While revealing that his former co-star Linda Hamilton is currently in training for her return to the iconic role of Sarah Connor, Arnold Schwarzenegger also revealed that the movie, which was believed to be reboot of the troubled franchise will instead be a direct sequel to the last movie of which Cameron was directly involved with; 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Arnold reiterated the movie's place in the chronology saying that it would not be called Terminator 6 and would ignore that Terminator: Genisys ever happened. Arnold also mentioned that Robert Patrick, who has expressed interest in returning to the franchise, will not be returning. Finally, Arnold stated that the movie will begin filming in March and that creator Cameron is expected to complete the movie's script in as soon as a fortnight's time.
Hamiltons return would suggest that in addition to Genisys this new movie will also be ignoring Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation, as in the former Hamilton's character had been killed off, and in the latter, Jurassic World's Bryce Dallas Howard starred as the grown-up Kate Brewster, played by Claire Danes (Homeland) in Terminator 3. This bold move will doubtlessly be praised by the majority of fans and general audiences but as I have stated repeatedly Terminator 3, while being a poorly executed movie did maintain the timeline of events, thus fixing the discrepancies in the timeline created by the first two movies.
Hamilton's return also suggests that her scenes will be set during the Future War of which fans have been eager to see realized on the big screen beyond a brief five-minute montage. And while we are starting to get an idea of who will and won't be returning we have yet to see who Cameron and Miller will cast in the movies most important role of John Connor, as it is unlikely that Edward Furlong will reprise his role.
With development well underway on the new Terminator movie, we are hopeful that Cameron has paid attention to the timelines of his movies and realized that his next movie will have to answer two questions...
The first being the true date of Judgment Day which I have already answered in a previous article, which is between 2000 and 2005. The second question, however, is more intriguing - In the original timeline, Sarah Connor would not have given birth to 'the' John Connor that Skynet viewed as a threat, as that John Connor had foreknowledge of the Terminators and had Kyle Reese as his father. So in the original timeline why did Skynet view Sarah Connor as a target?
Could it be that Sarah Connor was John's second-in-command, or could she have played another role entirely in the future war?