It is hard to deny the Terminator franchise has been struggling to keep viewers invested in recent installments, but the series could chart a fresh path if it abandons the story of John Connor, his mother Sarah, and their family entirely. Released in 1984, The Terminator was a promising start for the sci-fi horror franchise. The propulsive thriller told the tale of Terminator franchise heroine Sarah Connor, who was pursued by the eponymous killer robot who hoped to kill her before she conceived future human resistance leader John.
However, while the original The Terminator and its first sequel were huge, blockbuster successes, later entries have struggled to regain their popularity. The third Terminator movie, Rise of the Machines, introduced viewers to an older, independent John Connor, while the fourth was a post-apocalyptic war film set decades into the future. Neither of these installments, though, could recapture the magic of the first two Terminators.
The critical decline continued with the confused sort-of reboot Terminator: Genisys, which mixed up the timeline of the saga, and 2019’s Dark Fate, which earned some of the worst reviews of the series so far. Audiences and critics alike seem to agree the Terminator series is currently out of steam, and that the next entry needs a clean slate. With this in mind, there would be no bigger sign of a fresh start than giving John and Sarah Connor a break, especially as after multiple recastings, time jumps, and timeline resets, the franchise has done just about everything it can with them by now. It might sound like a drastic step, but it could save the Terminator series to get new blood in and revitalize the concept.
As early as 2009’s Terminator Salvation, whose original script centered on a robot protagonist and left Connor a background character, the series has flirted with this approach. However, the creative team has repeatedly returned to placing the Connor family front and center to ensure the franchise faithful aren’t disappointed - even though this approach has not helped the critical reception of the last four films. Few viewers wanted to see more from John Connor after Nick Stahl’s Rise of the Machines turn. However, the character was nonetheless beefed up in Terminator Salvation at the expense of his potentially more intriguing robot co-star when Christian Bale came aboard, solely so viewers knew that Connor was the hero of this Terminator outing.
In fairness to the creators, the recent history of the series makes it clear not just anyone can replace Terminator's the Connors. Simply dropping the characters is not enough to effectively reignite interest unless the Terminator franchise also adds new, compelling leads in their place, a mistake that was highlighted when the most recent sequel offed John and then introduced one of the series’ least interesting new additions in his stead. The canceled sequel to Terminator: Dark Fate, which would have revived the movie’s new character Grace, is evidence the series still needs to find a compelling, non-Connor protagonist if it is to progress successfully. However, while the Terminator movies may have a hard time picking this new hero, it is becoming increasingly clear the savior of the franchise (unlike the savior of humanity from Skynet) is unlikely to come from the Connor family.