Trying to make sense of the Terminator timeline is a close to impossible task, after the last three relaunches muddied the narrative waters to an unrecognizable degree. The only thing Salvation, Genisys and Dark Fate have in common, in fact, is that they were all lauded by the respective creative teams as the sequel that fans had been waiting for since Judgment Day, and would act as the first installment in a brand new trilogy.
After consecutive disappointments, though, even the return of Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor and James Cameron’s presence as co-writer and producer weren’t enough to save Dark Fate from disaster, and it wound up as one of the biggest box office bombs of last year after losing Paramount $120 million.
Star Mackenzie Davis admitted that the fans have pretty much lost any interest in the franchise by this point, something the numbers made very clear. And in a recent interview, the actress also revealed that she was set to return in the planned follow-up despite dying at the end of Dark Fate, as the proposed seventh Terminator would introduce yet another alternate timeline into the mix.
“It was gonna be a sort of timeline thing, where there’d be another timeline that you’d explore. Like, there’s no resurrection, but she came from the future, so…”
We’ve already seen Michael Biehn, Anton Yelchin and Jai Courtney play Kyle Reese to varying degrees of success, while Emilia Clarke was a very poor choice for Genisys‘ Sarah Connor. Edward Furlong, Nick Stahl, Christian Bale and Jason Clarke, meanwhile, all assumed the mantle of humanity’s savior John Connor, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger sat out Salvation as his face was unconvincingly pasted onto bodybuilder Roland Kickinger.
If the various sequels and reboots couldn’t find any consistency with the brand’s marquee names, then bringing back Davis’ Grace would have at least provided some connective tissue for a change, even if the reception to her performance in Terminator: Dark Fate was more than a little muted.
