Back in June of last year, a photo (seen below) was leaked from the set of the forthcoming Terminator: Dark Fate that revealed the possible return of a young John Connor, by the way of a casting double.
The photo shows young actor Jude Collie, who is supposedly playing young John Connor in the Tim Miller-directed film. When the photo made its rounds on social media, it stated Collie was a CGI stand-in, which means it's possible we'll be seeing Edward Furlong's young face on the big screen once again!
“I think the best way to think about Terminator: Dark Fate is to think about it as a direct sequel to Terminator 2, the third film in a series, if you will,” producer James Cameron explained in a recently deleted video, which was transcribed by Cinemablend.
Cameron added, “We’ll be continuing with Sarah’s story, John’s story, and the T-800 returns — a different T-800 with a very different role to play than what we’ve seen before.”
It's certainly a bummer that we won't be seeing Furlong reprising his role alongside Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor), but it is nice to know he'll be included in some capacity. The photo also confirms that Miller's film will be heading back to 1991, touching upon the events in Cameron's Judgement Day. Does this mean Robert Patrick‘s T-1000 will also make an appearance?! A writer can dream!
Cameron does note that the crux of the film will take place over the course of two consecutive days, streamlining the action in place of complexity.
“I think, tonally, what makes this a direct sequel to T1 and T2 is as much about the tone as it is about the narrative: It’s R rated, it’s grim, it’s gritty, it’s fast, it’s intense, it’s very linear. The whole story takes place in 36 hours. It’s not this kind of grandiose, complex story. It’s just very focused on the characters, it’s very now, it’s very present and it’s just a fast white-knuckle ride.”
As for Hamilton's Sarah Connor, she's become a hardened machine hunter:
“The principle of our movie is that there’s an inevitable conflict between humans and the intelligent machines that they make. And all [Sarah Connor has] done is kick the can down the road from her future back in the ’80s to our future now in 2019. Judgment Day is right around the corner, yet again. It’s an inevitability. So she’s kicked the can, she’s going to have to try to kick it again and again. The war never ends. So Sarah has become a Terminator hunter. She’s not waiting to be hunted by a Terminator, she hunts them. She’s figured out a way to be there when they pop through time and she just blows their shit away.”
Paramount Pictures releases a Dark Fate on November 1st, 2019.
