After Terminator: Dark Fate bombed at the box office, it looked like the third attempt at trying to reboot the franchise and launch an all-new trilogy in the space of a decade had finally hammered the final nail in the coffin following the dual disappointments of Genisys and Salvation, which at least had the benefit of earning at least $370 million apiece at the box office compared to the fifth installment’s meager $261 million.
While neither Salvation or Dark Fate officially had sequels green-lit, follow-ups for Genisys were already penciled in for May 2017 and June 2018 before the plug was pulled and the rights reverted back to James Cameron, with the initial plan being to shoot them back-to-back. After a poor commercial performance that would have been a total disaster if it hadn’t been for a strong showing in China, not to mention widespread apathy from both fans and critics, it was probably for the best that the story didn’t continue.
However, outlines were already in place for the proposed Genisys sequels, and in a recent interview, co-writer Patrick Lussier offered up some new details about the direction they were planning on heading in, one that would have answered many of the questions and plot threads left dangling when the movie faded to black.
“We wrote like two drafts of the next one, the direct sequel, and had an outline for the third one, what that would be, that answered all the questions that were presented in Genisys and brought it back around and closed it all off.”
Genisys‘ credits scene also teased a vastly increased role for Matt Smith’s mystery character who was ultimately revealed to be an avatar for Skynet itself, and from the sounds of things, he would have been the narrative driving force as the timeline became even more complex and convoluted.
“They dealt more with how the future and where Skynet comes from and what that sort of time loop is. You know, the Matt Smith character. It became much more of a focus, so they were probably a little trippier and stood away from T2 a little more. Started having their own identity. There’s sort of an interesting escaping the fatalistic part of it, how it opened was very cool, who knows? Maybe one day they’ll release it as a comic or something.”
A comic book is probably the best Lussier can hope for, given that fans spent almost 30 years waiting for a Terminator movie that could live up to the bar set by James Cameron’s classic duo and never got one despite four further attempts, with Genisys arguably the worst of the bunch.