Terminator Reboot Will Bring Back Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese And John Connor; Actor Shortlists Revealed

Alan Taylor is having a pretty damn big week. Not only does this weekend mark the anticipated release of Thor: The Dark World - which made $7.1 million at midnight last night and is expected to make $95 million by the end of Sunday - now The Hollywood Reporter is saying that the wheels are starting to turn on the director's next project: the Terminator reboot. According to the trade's sources, testing for the lead roles in the new sci-fi film are scheduled to begin next week, and shortlists of who is being considered for both the male and female parts have been released. And what characters are the actors vying for, you ask? None other than Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese and John Connor.

Emilia Clarke (who worked with Taylor on Game of Thrones), 21 Jump Street's Brie Larson and The Wolf of Wall Street's Margot Robbie are all reportedly going to try out to play a younger version of the legendary Linda Hamilton character in the new Terminator movie, while Garrett Hedlund and some other unnamed options are looking to potentially fill Michael Biehn's shoes. Adding an interesting wrinkle to the story is that Taylor is reportedly eying Tom Hardy to play John Connor, which is interesting considering that he is older than all of the aforementioned actors - and at the same time would be playing their son. Obviously there's some time travel involved in that situation, but that's hardly a surprise for a Terminator movie.

As of now Arnold Schwarzenegger is the only actor officially attached to the project, and he will be returning to the role he made a part of sci-fi history back in 1984. According to THR, the story will be "a time-spanning story that sees him tasked to protect Sarah Connor as she grows up." Does that mean we could potentially see multiple actresses wind up getting cast as Sarah Connor at different ages? Whatever direction they go in and whoever they end up casting, it's going to be hard for them to find anybody as completely badass as Linda Hamilton.

Set to be released on Wednesday July 1, 2015, the Terminator reboot is being planned as the first in a new trilogy and the script is currently being written by Patrick Lussier and Laeta Kalogridis. What do you think of the actors being considered for the lead roles? Do you think that they would be good options to play Sarah, Kyle and John, or would you rather see other actors take on the parts? Fill the comments section below with your thoughts, feelings and opinions!

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.