British actor Matt Smith was a virtual unknown until the 2009 New Years Day episode of British sci-fi phenomenon Doctor Who, when he replaced the popular David Tennant as the lead of the show, becoming the eleventh Doctor. Though the youngest actor to play the iconic role, Matt smith proved extremely popular before leaving the show in the 2013 Christmas Day special, when he was replaced by Scottish actor Peter Capaldi. Before and since Doctor Who Smith has appeared on stage and in British TV shows and movies, and will be appearing in this summers attempt to rejuvenate the Terminator franchise – Terminator Genisys.
Since appearing alongside Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney in the EW photo-shoot for the movie back in October last year, the only footage we have seen of Smith is an out of focus glimpse in the first, full length trailer; in both (pictured above) Smith is seen wearing a similar resistance soldier body armor to that worn by Jason Clarke. Yet Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures have been keeping the identity of the character Matt Smith is playing extremely close to their collective chests, even more so than the John Connor-nator bombshell, before it was revealed in recent trailers. Other than the elusive photo-shoot all we really know is that Smith has said his character is to play “a major role that will grow in the second and third films”, according to EW. Lets look at the possibilities of who is character could be...
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, when we were introduced to John Connor (portrayed by Edward Furlong), we were also introduced to his friend Tim (Danny Cooksey). John and Tim were inseparable up until the kid was face-planted into an arcade machine by Robert Particks T-1000. IMDB recently claimed that Matt Smith's character is an older incarnation of this character.
Though it would be nice to see Tim return, we doubt that a formerly secondary character would be elevated to a major character over the course of Skydance Productions proposed trilogy.
Probability - 20%
When we think of Skynet most of us will think of supercomputer or a program that is heavily guarded deep within the machines most protected structure. Yet what if, as Latino Review postulates, Skynet has been made flesh, at least on the outside, and has (for reasons unknown) infiltrated the human resistance.
In a movie with as convoluted a plot as Terminator Genisys we seriously doubt that Skynet would infiltrate the human resistance and fight alongside them against its own army of machines.
Probability - 10%
Den of Geek have theorised that Matt Smith could be portraying a Terminator that has either been reprogrammed and tasked to protect John Connor, or has successful infiltrated the human resistance and acts as a covert intelligence source allowing the machines to pre-empt any attacks the human resistance mounts. This popular theory has also been elaborated upon by Tech Times whom claim that released press materials identify Smith' character as the T-5000 a highly advanced Terminator that “converted” John Connor into the hybrid T-3000 seen in the recent barrage of trailers and TV spots.
It must be remembered however that originally Jason Clarkes character was referred to as the T-5000, before being relabelled as the T-3000, and Tech Times' description of the T-5000's ability to turn into a swarm of nano-machines matches the same ability performed by Jason Clarkes T-3000 in recent TV Spots. Smiths out of focus appearance in the first trailer also suggest that if he was a T-5000 he has infiltrated the resistance, which is contradictory to March's alleged plot leak.
Probability - 50%
UK entertainment and TV magazine Radio Times also mentioned the same theory as IMDB, but further postulated that the character of Tim, could also be a younger brother to the more well known John, of which Sarah and Kyle conceive after learning that their first born son John will become compromised and risk the very fate of the human race.
While being an interesting prospect, there is almost no evidence to support this wild theory with the exception of the young boy seen in some trailers. While it is inferred that this boy is a young John Connor the fact remains that John would actually be in his early thirties by 2017 not around 10 years old; though this could simply be one of many possible overlooked plot-holes missed by the movies writers.
Probability - 10%
The most popular theory unsurprisingly comes from the fans, whom almost unanimously have been speculating that Jason Clarke's John Connor is a decoy employed by the human resistance to protect the real John Connor, portrayed by Smith.
This theory falls in line with EW's quote from Smith about his characters role in the sequels as it is unknown if Jason Clarke has been contracted to return. At the EW photoshoot Smith was quoted a saying that his character was also a close ally to Jason Clarke's John Connor. Whether or not Smith meant before or after Clarke's transformation remains to be seen.
Probability – 50%
Therefore we speculate that Matt Smith is to either portray the deadly T-5000 responsible for converting John Connor into the Hybrid T-3000, after infiltrating the resistance, or alternatively he is the real John Connor whom has employed the use of decoys to protect himself from termination and/or conversion at the hands of Skynet.
With Terminator Genisys' release date literally around the corner it is possible, following the recently released barrage of character profile featurettes, that we may yet catch another glimpse of Smith that may shed a little more light on his character.
Article Published:
2015-06-25 03:50:31