Following the dismal Terminator Salvation and eventual downfall of TV show The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the Terminator series was in dire need of a fresh start. Now, after idling in development hell with occasional updates, we can at the very least say that some headway has finally been made. As of today, the series’ in-development reboot will officially be called Terminator: Genesis.
It’s not the best title, but it’s the first film in a planned reboot trilogy and is certainly functional. /Film points out that the title could also be a simple placeholder, which is definitely a possibility.
There’s no hard info on anything else regarding the new film as of yet, but one could reasonably infer that it will follow a similar plot trajectory to that of the original quadrilogy. At this point, all we know about the reboot is that it will be written by Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry) and Laeta Kalorgridis (Avatar, Shutter Island), will be directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World), and will relate to a new TV series currently in the works. The rest of the info surrounding the film is, unfortunately, nothing more than byproduct of the never-ending pop culture rumor mill. There’s even talk of Arnold Schwarzenegger showing up, though whether his role will transcend cameo status is not yet clear.
The original Terminator series follows the rise of Skynet, a massive, intelligent AI that eventually becomes sentient and turns on humanity. The only man who can stop it, John Connor, eventually creates a resistance but, at every stage of his life, Skynet sends a Terminator – an unstoppable robotic killing machine – back in time to murder him before such rebellion can take place.
It remains to be seen whether this reboot will completely rehash the plot of the old films or carve out its own niche in the Terminator lineage. It’s got a long shadow to escape, too – Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day are widely regarded as being two of the best sci-fi/action films of all time. We’re interested to see how it all plays out nonetheless.
Terminator: Genesis is set for release on July 1st, 2015.