Robots are creepy. Not only are they emotionless machines whose actions are determined by cold, hard logic instead of characteristics such as empathy and compassion, but they also don’t age. At least, not in the way we humans do. While their metal frames may rust and their firmware may become outdated, their jowls don’t sag and their skin doesn’t wrinkle. That is, until now. In a bold new take on the Terminator franchise, Terminator: Genesis will introduce an older Terminator, played by a decidedly older Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“The way that the character is written, it’s a machine underneath,” Schwarzenegger explained to MTV News. “It’s this metal skeleton. But above that is human flesh. And the Terminator’s flesh ages, just like any other human being’s flesh. Maybe not as fast. But it definitely ages.”
Of course, time travel always complicates things, so it’s not just an older T-800 we’ll be seeing in the new Terminator sequel. According to Schwarzenegger, “Terminator deals a lot with time travel, so there will be a younger T-800, and then what that model does later on when it gets reprogrammed, and who gets ahold of him. So it will be all kinds of interesting twists in the movie, but I feel so good.”
The question, then, is who will play the younger T-800? Will it be a different actor? Will they use CGI to do a reverse Benjamin Button on the Governator? Or have the producers of Terminator: Genesis actually found a way to time travel so they can cast a younger, less gubernatorial Arnold in the role? Anything is possible in the magical world of Hollywood, especially with a franchise as high profile as the Terminator movies.
Whether there is one Arnold or an army of Arnolds, each one abducted against his will from a different parallel dimension, one thing is clear: He’ll be back, and at least one of him will be kind of old. Find out if he can time travel without breaking a hip when Terminator: Genesis hit theaters on July 1, 2015.