Few would have predicted that Edward Furlong would return to the Terminator franchise after all these years, and fewer still would’ve guessed that Furlong’s John Connor would fall victim to a T-800 one year after the apocalypse he and his mother Sarah helped prevent.
Yet that’s exactly what Dark Fate – and specifically franchise architect James Cameron – had in store for Furlong’s fan favorite. And let’s just say it split audiences down the middle. While some rejoiced at Furlong’s return, others were left devastated when his character was unceremoniously bumped off by an all-too-familiar robotic enemy.
Turns out the actor himself felt pretty bummed out by the whole ordeal, too, after voicing his reaction while appearing on Alex Leyba’s YouTube channel earlier this week (h/t Bloody Disgusting):
They smoked my ass! That was the role. I did it for a day – I shot for one day. And, yeah, we did some CGI. They paid me. So, I mean, ya know. It kinda bums me out. Cause I’d love to do a whole one and make a shit-ton of money. I would love to do more, but we’ll see what happens.
Can you really blame him? Alas, Terminator‘s immediate future is once again under review no thanks to Dark Fate‘s lowly box office haul. Much like Genisys, the quasi-sequel arrived with ambitions for a full-blown trilogy, but audiences have spoken, and it looks certain that the sci-fi classic will be placed on ice sooner rather than later.
It’s a pity, really, as there’s so much potential hidden beneath Terminator‘s metallic hood. Perhaps we’ll see some sort of episodic continuation of the franchise further down the road? It’s certainly possible, though we imagine viewers still need some sort of cooling-off period before we return to the world of Skynet and T-800s.