The Terminator franchise has been in bad shape for a while, with 1991’s Terminator: Judgement Day the last acclaimed entry in the sci-fi series. For Terminator: Dark Fate, then, producer James Cameron and the filmmakers have decided to bring back a couple of fan favorite faces from the first Terminator sequel. We’ve always known that Linda Hamilton would feature in it as Sarah Connor, but it was revealed last month that Edward Furlong would also be back as her son John.
Though John has been a major part of each successive film following T2, Furlong hasn’t been seen in the franchise since then. So, it naturally came as a big surprise that he was returning for Dark Fate. And it sounds like it was a surprise to Furlong himself, too. The actor attended a Terminator reunion panel at Silicon Valley Comic-Con recently where Rebel Insight caught up with him. Speaking to the outlet, Furlong opened up about how it meant a lot to him that he got the call to come back.
“It was like a blessing man. I was very excited you know, like really uh, yeah I was trying to turn my life around at that point – so I mean it was uh, it was kinda a good call to get, you know? It kinda felt like a gift from all that you know, plus I was supposed to do the other Terminator but I done f***ed that s*** up, So I gotta tell you, I was proud.”
Furlong’s troubles with the law and long-standing substance abuse issues have been well-documented, and as the actor alludes to above, these are likely what caused him to be replaced for 2003’s Terminator: Rise of the Machines with Nick Stahl. Subsequent sequels – 2009’s Terminator: Salvation and 2015’s Terminator: Genisys – continued to cast new stars in the role, in the form of Christian Bale and Jason Clarke. Furlong has, however, continued to have a steady career in Hollywood for the past 20 years, and now he’s finally returning to his most iconic part.
We’ll see whether Terminator: Dark Fate is the one to fix the broken timeline of the franchise when it hits theaters on November 1st.