The Terminator reunion didn’t feel complete until producer James Cameron confirmed the return of Edward Furlong as John Connor in the Tim Miller-directed Terminator: Dark Fate, which retcons all sequels except Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The third film in the trilogy brings Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Connor, so it would be strange to see a continuation of the story without her son, John, who in the key component to everything.
In Cameron’s 1984 The Terminator, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is sent back in time (by John) to protect his mother from the original T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a machine programmed to kill her before she can give birth to the future leader of the resistance.
Sarah and a teenage John team up in the sequel, Judgment Day, and eventually stop all the future events from coming to fruition. Thus, we never actually see John strap on his boots and go to war with the machines.
This led to a lot of speculation as to what John’s role would be in Dark Fate, arriving in theaters this November. Would we see him as the leader of the same resistance, started in a different future, or maybe we’d see him sending Reese back in some sort of futuristic flashback sequence? The answer is neither.
*SPOILERS*
I have confirmed that early leaked reports were on target and that we won’t be seeing an adult version of Furlong’s John Connor in Dark Fate, at least not in the most recent cut of the film.
My source tells me that yes, Jude Collie was in fact cast to play a young John Connor and that CGI was used to put Furlong’s face on his body. Now, here’s where this becomes news and not a rehash of what you’ve read here on Bloody Disgusting for over the past year – while Furlong isn’t physically in Dark Fate, he does deliver a brand new performance that’s been digitally placed directly onto Collie’s face. So, yes, Furlong is technically in Dark Fate, just not exactly how we all expected.
It’s also important to note that Miller and the cast are preparing for a round of additional photography that could change the current edit as it exists. It’s still possible that they shoot some new sequences that involve an older John Connor, but as of this writing, we’ll be seeing him in CG form.
As a side note, I’m told this new film bleeds James Cameron and is a worthy sequel to Judgment Day. Also, in case you were wondering, Biehn nor Reese are in this film.
What do you all think about all of this?
