9 Years Ago, The Terminator Franchise Wasted Its Best Chance At A Reboot

Terminator Genisys was released nine years ago, and it wasted the Terminator franchise’s best chance at a reboot. From a low-budget action film with a sci-fi twist to a billion-dollar franchise with six theatrical installments, Terminator has taken many shapes and forms since 1984. Both TheTerminator and Terminator2: Judgment Day are considered all-time classic action films, whereas all other sequels had lots of issues and could not replicate the success of the first two films. By the time Terminator Genisys arrived in theaters, Terminator had already tried to reinvent itself three times.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the first Terminator movie not directed by James Cameron, killed Sarah Connor offscreen and followed an adult John Connor in a post-T2 world. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles‘s canon ignored Rise of the Machines and recast Sarah and John. Lastly, Terminator Salvation starred Christian Bale as John Connor in a movie set in the future that previous films had only shown glimpses of. It took six years after Salvation for Terminator to return to the big screen, this time with a reboot.

Terminator Genisys Sounded Like A Good Way Of Rebooting Terminator

Terminator needed a fresh start after Salvation

With an exciting new cast and an interesting premise, Terminator Genisys sounded like a great way of rebooting Terminator six years after Terminator Salvation’s disaster. The movie was set to be a return to the formula for Terminator, bringing back Arnold Schwarzenegger as a different version of the T-100 while also rewriting the franchise’s timeline with new actors playing Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. Terminator Genisys was supposed to be a love letter to the Terminator movies, referencing previous films as its protagonist experienced a new timeline born from a change made to Sarah’s backstory.

Terminator Genisys was expected to dive into the sci-fi aspect of the saga, particularly the time travel one. The multiple Terminator timelines had always been confusing, and the idea was for Terminator Genisys to make this into a plot point by introducing the concept of multiple realities. In this version of the story, a T-100 raised Sarah Connor and prepared her for the events of TheTerminator. The dynamic between Sarah and Kyle was flipped, with the former saying “Come with me if you wanna live.” Terminator Genisys seemed like it would find the perfect balance between nostalgia and new ideas.

Terminator was in desperate need of a movie that did something new but that also recaptured the magic of the first two films. Terminator3: Rise of the Machines had been incredibly disappointing compared to its predecessors, whereas Terminator Salvation almost killed the franchise for good. Arnold Schwarzenegger leading a Terminator reboot alongside Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney could have been the start of a new chapter in the saga’s history, but it did not work. With 26% on Rotten Tomatoes and $440 million at the box office on a $155 million budget, Terminator Genisys never got a sequel.

What Went Wrong With Terminator Genisys

Terminator Genisys had too many problems

Terminator Genisys’ premise sounded promising, but the execution was flawed. While Terminator had been sci-fi from the start, Genisys was too worried about its time travel and alternate realities plotlines. The movie makes little effort to properly introduce and develop Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, who are essentially brand-new characters in this new iteration of the franchise. The same can be said about the T-800, which almost feels like a parody of previous versions of Schwarzenegger’s iconic character. Terminator Genisys was too self-aware about the franchise’s lore and did not do anything new.

For example, Lee Byung-hun played a new version of the T-1000 in Genisys. Rather than introducing new villains who could become iconic on their own, Genisys preferred to wink at audiences with references and callbacks to Terminator’s best movies. The movie did try some risky new ideas, but they did not pay off. This is especially true for the evil John Connor twist. Having John become a Terminator offscreen was not as impactful as the movie hoped for. While turning the saga’s ultimate hero into a villain could have worked, Terminator Genisys’ biggest twist wasn’t earned.

Terminator’s Other Attempt At Rebooting The Franchise Also Didn’t Work

Terminator: Dark Fate was supposed to be the true T2 sequel

Terminator Genisys’ box office was not enough to get a direct sequel greenlight. The movie was supposed to be the first entry in a new trilogy and even ended on a confusing cliffhanger in which Matt Smith’s Terminator character gained human form. After some uncertainty regarding where the saga was going to go next, a new Terminator movie directed by Tim Miller and produced by James Cameron was announced. Terminator: Dark Fate was going to ignore everything that came after T2 and serve as a proper sequel to the 1991 film.

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Ignoring Rise of the Machines, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Salvation, and Genisys did sound like the right approach for a new Terminator film. After prequels, reboots, and multiple timelines, going back to Terminator 2 and building something from there could have been the fresh start that Terminator needed. Still, Dark Fate was an even bigger box-office disappointment compared to Genisys. The movie grossed $261 million at the worldwide box office on an estimated budget of $185 million, killing any chances of a sequel. Five years after Dark Fate, what the next Terminator movie will be remains to be seen.

Terminator’s Next Best Chance At A Fresh Start Is Not In The Movies

Terminator is returning to the small screen in 2024

Almost a decade after Genisys, Terminator’s next best chance at a fresh start is not in the movies but rather on streaming. The franchise is returning in 2024 with Netflix’s Terminator Zero, an eight-episode anime series from the studio behind Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Terminator Zero will be the first animated Terminator property and the saga’s first TV show since 2009. Timothy Olyphant will play the anime’s Terminator, with the series taking place primarily in 1997. The series will revisit the original Judgment Day date as a soldier goes back in time to find a scientist.

Although there isn’t a trailer for Terminator Zero yet, everything revealed about the series so far looks very promising. It’s no coincidence that some of the best sci-fi movies and shows are animated – the media allows for visuals and stories that couldn’t be achieved in live-action. This is why Terminator Zero is more exciting than Terminator 7, which has not even been confirmed to be in the works. How Terminator Zero will tie into the movies remains to be seen, but it has all the ingredients to be the fresh new take on Terminator that Terminator Genisys failed to be.

Terminator Genisys

Terminator: Genysis reboots James Cameron’s Terminator franchise by rewriting the events of the original movie. This time, Emilia Clarke’s Sarah Connor already knows why Jai Courtney’s Kyle Reese has been sent back in time, and an older T-800, once again played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, helps them in their quest to prevent an AI uprising.

Director

Alan Taylor

Release Date

July 1, 2015

Runtime

2h 6m

Budget

155 million

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