There are so many interesting “what-ifs” surrounding James Cameron‘s first two The Terminator films, including last year’s shocker that Billy Idol was originally cast as the T-1000 in Terminator 2. While that was indeed a surprising revelation, nothing is more incomprehensible as the little-known-fact that Cameron envisioned Lance Henriksen for the main role of the T-800 in his 1984 sci-fi thriller. Shit, even before Arnold Schwarzenegger landed the role (and cemented his place as the ultimate action star), the studio explored the idea of casting O. J. Simpson and even giving the Terminator a robot-dog sidekick!
Digressing just a bit, the following tweet shared alleged early concept art of Henriksen as The Terminator. The idea came while sick with fever, Cameron had a dream about a skeletal metal death machine emerging from a fire, as though it had been covered in human flesh. While Henriksen would have no doubt killed it in the role, I think it’s safe to say Arnold ended up being the right choice. What do you think?
An earlier concept-art by James Cameron depicts Lance Henriksen as The Terminator pic.twitter.com/huKqOwthmu
— Core of Movies (@CoreofMovies) March 2, 2018