Today, Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures completed main casting for their upcoming franchise reboot, Terminator: Genesis, with the casting of Nigerian actor Dayo Okeniyi in the key role of Danny Dyson, a brilliant inventor who, according to sources, factors heavily into the conclusion of Genesis and is also the son of cyborg developer Miles Dyson (played by Joe Morton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day). Danny, for those who don’t know, holds the key to the technology responsible for Skynet’s creation.
A few days ago, we learned that Skydance and Paramount were eying Attack the Block star John Boyega for the pivotal role. Boyega immediately became involved in a Hollywood tug-of-war between two veteran sci-fi properties: Terminator and Star Wars (which is getting a new lease on life of its own with J.J. Abrams at the helm). Evidently, the robots were no match for the Jedi, seeing as Skydance and Paramount have left Boyega to Star Wars and have cast another talented up-and-comer in the role.
Okeniyi, known for his supporting roles in The Hunger Games and The Spectacular Now, was actually also asked to screen-test for Star Wars as well, but Skydance CEO David Ellison stepped up and apparently gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He joins a packed cast which includes Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, Zero Dark Thirty‘s Jason Clarke as her son John Connor, Divergent‘s Jai Courtney as resistance fighter Kyle Reese, Arnold Schwarzenegger as an older version of the Terminator, and J.K. Simmons in an undisclosed role.
Okeniyi’s casting came packaged with news that Skydance and Paramount are taking early steps to set up two sequels to Terminator: Genesis. The second and third films, intended to conclude this franchise reboot, will be filmed back-to-back over nine months.
Production on Terminator: Genesis is due to get underway in Louisiana shortly, for a planned release date of July 1st, 2015.