Ever since it was reported back in July that Terminator: Genisys had filmed at the Oracle Headquarters in Redwood City, San Francisco; in which the location was used as a stand in for the Cyberdyne Systems building seen in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, we have speculated that the upcoming movie would attempt to “amend” the timeline of events previously portrayed in the first two instalments of the franchise. In short, we have speculated that Genisys will undo the latter two instalments in the franchise (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines & Terminator Savation), AKA the alleged “changed future”, by changing the events of the first two instalments so that Judgment Day occurred as prophecized by Sarah Connor, on August 29th 1997.
A Time Displacement Sphere signalling the arrival of a Terminator!
While far from a concrete confirmation Genisys actor Jai Courtney inferred our speculation to be accurate (whether wholly or partly, remains to be seen) in a recent interview with Collider, in which the actor refers to the upcoming movie as neither a sequel nor a reboot, but instead a reset of the franchise...
“I think it’s going to be really cool what they’ve done with it. It’s curious, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we actually frame—people want to know if it’s a sequel or a reboot. A word that kind of came to me is that it’s more of a ‘reset.’ That’s the awesome thing about when you play with time travel. We can kind of get away with, you know, maybe we’re introduced to a world that audiences know but circumstances can change and that shifts the course of everything.”
When asked if the audience would need have watched and understood the first two instalments Courtney replied...
“I think it’s, if they wanted to [watch the first two films] they could but I don’t think that if they hadn’t they’ll see our film and be completely lost.”
Finally Courtney alluded to the proposed future of the franchise...
“They’ve already slated [the sequels]. They released their proposed released dates for the next two, so it’s cool. Something like that, I don’t have a problem thinking that it’ll be part of my life for the next few years because I’m into it. I like the idea of it… I feel like with this, the plan they have and the journey that we’re gonna go on from here will be different enough to not feel like we’re just repeating history.”
Interestingly, from Courtney's last statement, it would seem as though the character of which he will portray, Kyle Reese (portrayed by Michael Biehn in the 1984 original), is to survive his fateful confrontation with the T-800. This and, as we have mentioned in previous articles, the presumed nature of the “reset” of the franchise will in actuality damage the timeline of the franchise beyond all repair and deliver victory into the hands of Skynet.
