Terminator: Genisys is the upcoming Terminator movie installment that, in a Star Trek (2009)-style maneuver, moves the franchise into an alternate timeline, where the past has been "reset" by way of time-travel. Admittedly, that convoluted approach to course-correcting a franchise worked wonders for the X-Men films when Days of Future Past did it last year, but there's no guarantee that Genisys will enjoy similar success (especially if the generally lukewarm responses to the movie's first trailer and Super Bowl preview are any indicator).
... Not that this has stopped Paramount from scheduling two more Terminator films for release in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Arnold Schwarzenegger, returning to play a version of the iconic T-800 whose biological exoskeleton has aged in Genisys, has now confirmed that he will also be appearing in the planned sixth Terminator movie - which, as it were, may end up being shot back to back with the seventh installment.
Schwarzenegger, in addition to confirming his involvement, told The Arnold Fans that filming on the Terminator: Genisys sequel won't get underway until 2016. The project doesn't officially have a screenwriter (or screenwriters) or director in place for the time being, though that may change before Genisys reaches theaters. The same goes for confirmation (either way) concerning Arnold's Genisys costars; especially, Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney as, respectively, the new faces for Sarah Conner and Kyle Reese in Genisys.
Similarly, it remains to be seen what fate befalls Jason Clarke as the adult John Connor in Genisys, while rumor has it the cast members who are playing new key characters in the fifth Terminator installment - Doctor Who alum Matt Smith and newly-minted Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons, respectively - will have significantly larger roles to play in the followups. As for Schwarzenegger: in a movie that will feature timeline-resetting and multiple versions of the T-800, there's no guarantee that Arnold's "old T-800" won't have been destroyed by the end of Genisys, just because the actor's onboard for the sequel (he could well play an old version of a different T-800 model in Terminator 6, for example).
Bear in mind, this is all assuming that Genisys does well enough for the sequel to earn a green-light from Paramount. After all, in 2009 Terminator Salvation was meant to kickoff a new Terminator movie trilogy, but that ended up not happening after the film earned (mostly) mediocre reviews and took in a $371 million global box office gross - which, given the $200 million cost, was lower than desired. Add Schwarzenegger no longer being a huge box office draw and it seems fair to say: there's a real chance that history could repeat itself, when it comes to Terminator: Genisys' attempt to start a new trilogy.
That being said, the Genisys screenplay by Patrick Lussier and Laeta Kaleogridis (who also co-wrote this summer's Mission: Impossible 5) recently collected some praise via alleged script reviews circulating the web. And if Thor: The Dark World director Alan Taylor's Terminator movie gets a kick-ass second theatrical trailer, that will only help to improve the buzz surrounding this film. So, make no mistake, we're not betting against Genisys - not at this stage, anyway.
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Terminator: Genisys opens in U.S. theaters on July 1st, 2015, with additional Terminator installments scheduled for May 19th, 2017 and June 29th, 2018.
Source: The Arnold Fans
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