The path of the Terminator franchise has been a strange one without any real sense of permanence ever since the finale of James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgement Day. We've seen two feature-length sequels - Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation - that came out weirdly far apart (a full six years between them), and there was even the short-lived television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which ended up making very little pop culture impact. Now, however, the sci-fi franchise is ready to come back in full force not just with a reboot, but a full trilogy of movies that will unfold over the next four years or so.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has finally unveiled the full scale of their Terminator plans and have announced release dates for what are now simply being called Terminator 2 and Terminator 3 - sequels to the upcoming Terminator: Genisys. While we'll be seeing the reboot in theaters in time for the July 4th holiday next year, Terminator 2 is being planned for May 19, 2017, which Terminator 3 is going to be released on June 29, 2018. In case you couldn't tell from how close those last two dates are, the current idea is to have the sequels filmed back-to-back. Naturally, this all depends on exactly how well the Terminator reboot does in theaters in 2015.
We still don't know anything about the plot of Terminator: Genisys, coming to us from Thor: The Dark World director Alan Taylor, but we do know that the franchise is coming back with an absolutely stacked cast. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be back to once again play the T-800, but this time he will be supported by Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, Jai Courtney as the heroic Kyle Reese, Jason Clarke as the human species' savior, John Connor, and The Hunger Games' Dayo Okeniyi as Danny Dyson. Filling out the cast in roles new to the series will be Doctor Who's Matt Smith, J.K. Simmons, G.I. Joe's Byung-hun Lee, Mad Men's Michael Gladis, and Courtney B. Vance.
Coming out in the middle of May 2017, Terminator 2 doesn't have any direct competition yet, but it is surrounded by huge titles that month. The newest movie from Marvel Studios has been dated to come out on May 5, 2017, and right after Terminator's weekend will come the arrival of a new LEGO Movie. The June 2018 date for Terminator 3 isn't much more comfortable. In addition to having Godzilla 2 and a new movie from Pixar coming out in the two weeks preceding it, it's also set to go up against a new animated feature from 20th Century Fox and will be coming out a few days before the release of yet another new Marvel movie the first week of July 2018.
