You can't think of Arnold Schwarzenegger without thinking of his iconic role as The Terminator. They go together like bacon and eggs, apple and cinnamon, you can't have one without associating it with the other. Schwarzenegger has a long list of accomplishments to his name but playing James Cameron's Terminator would always be in the top. It would be interesting to note that Schwarzenegger was originally lined up to play Kyle Reese but upon meeting him, Director James Cameron knew he would be a great fit as The Terminator.
The character of The Terminator is one of the few who was able to transcend roles, in the first movie he was the main antagonist who you would come to fear and hate but in the sequel Terminator: Judgement Day he transcends the role of angagonist to become someone the audience would cheer for and even become a sort of father figure to the then teenage John Connor.
With the upcoming 5th movie in the franchise, Terminator Genisys I was really curious as to how Schwarzenegger and his character would fit in, given that he is already in his 60s.
According to producer David Ellison, “’Terminator Genisys’ is not a remake, it’s not a reboot, it’s not a sequel—it’s really a reimagining based on the James Cameron source material. Exploiting the inherent nature of time travel, we go off on a divergent timeline to take these characters that audiences and I grew up with in a completely new direction.”
“I don’t think you can make a Terminator movie without Arnold,” suggests director Alan Taylor. “Certainly, I couldn’t imagine it without him. There’s something about the way he and Cameron built that character and then within the two movies explored such different sides of that character that he basically set the parameters for that world – that mythology means it would be really hard for me to think of a Terminator movie that let go of him.”
“I was very happy to be involved,” admits Schwarzenegger. “I got a phone call telling me that David and Megan Ellison had acquired the rights and the first thing I thought was, “Finally they are doing another one! And finally I am again in the movie! Also, I was very happy when I heard who was writing the script. I just liked the direction it was taking from the beginning.”
Screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis says, “I considered Arnold’s character the ultimate Tin Man—how does he become the cornerstone and the heart of the story, for a character that essentially has no heart? There was something really tantalizing about the idea of Arnold playing a Terminator who has aged—of not trying to do any crazy CG stuff, but to respect the change in the actor. The Terminator was always very much of its time—so to be able to tell the story in the moment and the age that Arnold is…it interested us all. The human tissue surrounding the cyborg ages, but he’s also aged on the inside through his very long experience with humans all this time. We thought it would be so much fun to explore.”