Emilia Clarke and Matt Smith are gracing the cover of EW in their Terminator: Genisys glory while also revealing major reboot plot changes.
For the better part of a year, fans have been unsure if Terminator: Genisys was a reboot or a sequel to the previous four Terminator movies. Well, whether it is set in time travel-altered canon or not, it’s safe to say that with the new revelations accompanying Terminator: Genisys’ debut cover photos on Entertainment Weekly that this film is definitely rewriting the franchise’s already tangled continuity—throwing the knotty ball of plot strands through a liquid metal machete and seeing what comes out on the other side.
Along with the awesome new cover revealing Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor and Jai Courtney as the new Kyle Reese, as well as Jason Clarke’s John Connor accompanied by Doctor Who’s Matt Smith, EW also got the cast and producers to spill some of the beans about what we can expect from next summer’s trip back into Skynet’s web.
First and foremost, the new Sarah Connor comes with a new back-story, related directly to being raised by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s papa Terminator!
“Since she was nine-years-old, she has been told everything that was supposed to happen,” producer David Ellison said. “But Sarah fundamentally rejects that destiny. She says, ‘That’s not what I want to do.’ It’s her decision that drives the story in a very different direction.”
Apparently that direction includes being raised by a T-800 since her orphaning, who she affectionately refers to as “Pops.” He has been programmed to “guard rather than kill her,” and has jump-started her learning ability with sniper rifles and other weapons of sudden death long before Kyle Reese made googily eyes at her.
In a strictly utilitarian sense, these massive changes make perfect sense: we are jump-starting the franchise, which is intended to be the beginning of a new trilogy, by skipping ahead to the part of Sarah Connor’s lore that everyone likes: the badass name-taker in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It also, rather cleverly, allows them to retell the John Connor story in a way that feels different since it is Sarah Connor who has now been told since a young age that she is mankind’s messiah (or at least the mother of it), and that she is pre-destined to help save the world.
However, the film does actually have John Connor all grown up, as exemplified by Jason Clarke’s (no relation) John Connor. Indeed, as seen in the other cover, John Connor also has a mysterious new best friend played by the previous beloved Doctor Who, Matt Smith. Smith also said he thinks fans will be satisfied with these changes.
“It’s like going on tour again if you’re Pink Floyd—the audience always wants to hear some of the old songs,” Matt Smith said. “There are enough nods to the past that people will feel satisfied.”
I suppose we’ll all find out when the Alan Taylor-directed Terminator: Genisys shoots into theaters on July 1, 2015.
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