About a week ago we reported that two actors were in contention for the coveted role of Kyle Reese in director Alan Taylor’s upcoming film, Terminator: Genesis. Those actors were A Good Day To Die Hard star Jai Courtney and relative unknown Body Holbrook (Hatfields &McCoys). At the time, it was suspected that Holbrook was the frontrunner for the role. Today, however, it’s being reported that the studio has gone with Courtney. He will join the film alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger (returning as the titular killing machine), Game of Thrones alum Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor and Zero Dark Thirty star Jason Clarke (no relation) as John Connor.
This fifth instalment in the Terminator franchise has been in the works for several years now, mostly due to legal troubles after The Halcyon Company filed for bankruptcy in 2009. The rights were then picked up by Annapurna Pictures in 2011, and after going through a few directors (including Rian Johnson and Justin Lin), Taylor landed the job. Now, production is finally underway.
Courtney has some big shoes to fill, thanks to Michael Biehn’s great performance as Kyle Reese in the original film. Anton Yelchin then inherited the role of a young Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation, but it appears that they’re going in a completely new direction here. We’re still not sure how the film will fit into the original continuity that the other four films set up, or if it will serve as a hard-reset or quasi-reboot for the series, effectively re-launching the franchise. For now, we’ll just have to sit back and wait until more details emerge, as the film heads toward its July 1, 2015 release date.
I think that most people will be pleased with this particular casting choice. Courtney is quickly becoming a rising star in Hollywood, with films like A Good Day to Die Hard, Jack Reacher and soon Divergent and its sequel Insurgent, under his belt. He’s certainly someone you should be watching out for in the next few years and has proven himself worthy of a role like this. I’m excited to see what he does with the part and I can only hope that Terminator: Genesis finds more success than its last two predecessors.
Tell us, what do you think of Jai Courtney in the role of Kyle Reese? Would you have rather seen Holbrook take the part? Let us know in the comments below.