Certain lucky humans were treated to the first footage fromTerminator: Dark Fateduring Paramount’s presentation at CinemaCon today. It was positioned as the centerpiece of their panel, with the majority of the cast, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, who finally makes her return as the iconic Sarah Connor, on hand. But one of the big reveals didn’t come in the footage. Rather, it was director Tim Miller who explained that a new Terminator in this movie will have the ability to split into more than one Terminator.
Tim Miller, best known for his work onDeadpool, partnered with franchise creator James Cameron for this latest installment in the long-running sci-fi franchise. Cameron is busy directing hisAvatarsequels and couldn’t be at the panel, and that’s also why he couldn’t direct the movie himself. But based on the reaction from theCinemaConcrowd on social media to the footage that was shown, which features Sarah Connor kicking ass, it’s in good hands. Miller got noticeably emotional on stage, welling up with tears. He also expressed his gratitude for being able to take on the project.
“To say working on this movie was a labor of love is an enormous fg understatement… It was such a good fg time.”
But easily the craziest reveal has to do with this new Terminator, presumablyplayed by Gabriel Luna, who previously portrayed Ghost Rider onAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.According to Miller, the Terminator can split “so he’s twice as deadly.” Innovations with the robots in this series is nothing new. That started with Robert Patrick’s T-1000 inT2, who was made of liquid metal. That having been said, the idea of a Terminator actually being able to divide itself and become more than one deadly killing machine is truly crazy and very new. Sadly, this wasn’t displayed in the footage that was shown, but it’s still a wild revelation nonetheless.
Unfortunately, this franchise has been in a rough spot ever since the release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which is still considered to beone of the greatest sequels ever made. But more recent entries such asSalvationandGenisyshave failed to live up to fan expectations and haven’t exactly been critical successes either. As such, James Cameron and Tim Miller have decided to ignore later sequels and have positioned that is a direct sequel to the original two movies.
That freshening up could be exactly what the franchise needed, based on thebuzz coming out of CinemaCon. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing a teaser trailer online sooner rather than later. The cast also includes Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes and Diego Boneta. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as any further details on the project are made available.Terminator: Dark Fateis set to hit theaters on November 1 fromParamount Pictures.
