For fans of the 1984 thriller The Terminator and its 1991 action sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the sequels have been a consistent disappointment. I’m hesitant to get my hopes up too much—although I didn’t hate Terminator Genisys as much as others did, it certainly wasn’t the movie that its trailer had me hoping it would be—but there’s a new Terminator movie in the works. Against my better judgment, I’m already quietly excited about it.
A few things make this movie different from the execrable Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the just-plain-boring Terminator Salvation, and the aforementioned Genisys, and all of them are cause for optimism.
First, the original and best Sarah Connor, Linda Hamilton, is returning to the role. Hamilton’s Connor transformed from a carefree big-haired waitress into a toned and trained killing machine of her own; her big-screen replacement in Genisys, Emilia Clarke, didn’t have an ounce of her tough screen presence.