JK Simmons to return to Terminator franchise

It has recently been revealed to /Film that JK Simmons has signed on to appear in possible future sequels to the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Emilia Clarke fronted Terminator Genisys.

In an interview with /Film’s writer Peter Sciretta, Simmons emphasised the fact that his character did survive the events of the film: “In fact, we went back and did a little added shot on the roof of the whole helicopter sequence to make sure that we see that after Arnold throws me away so that he can save people,” he said.

When contemplating his character’s future during the interview, Simmons explained that there are “a lot of ways we could go with O’Brien (his character) and that such plans have already been made. He’s the only guy in 2017, in the regular world that has a clue what’s going on. Nobody believes him, but he does sorta know what’s up, or is beginning to figure out what the whole story is here. So I think if we make the sequels as they continue, I think O’Brien’s credibility level will develop.”

At this point, no solid information on Genisys’ possible sequels have been released. However, based on an interview that writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier did with Screencrush, we can safely conclude that any future sequel will involve Matt Smith’s mysterious character: “He’s not from this timeline,” they said. “He’s from an alternate universe, in the multiverse. Another of the many universes that exist. That Skynet is not from that timeline… This Skynet has been to this universe, and this universe, and this universe. (…)He’s watched it happen a bunch of different times, and each time he’s seen it there is a different result…”

All this, of course, relies on Terminator Genisys receiving a sequel. Although it has only recently appeared in theatres, it is already taking a critical bashing, with sites such as Digital Spy describing it as “bad re-wiring” rather than as a rebooting of the franchise” and The Guardian calling it “karaoke rehash” – which we here at Roobla feel the need to point out is also a good name for a rock band.

At this point, any talk about a sequel is merely speculation, but Terminator Genisys’s frosty reception, combined with its lacklustre box office success so far (as reported in Forbes), leads us to believe that if the Terminator franchise does have a fate it’s probably not a good one.

You can read Roobla’s review, written by opinionator Sammy-J0 Shaw, here.