Thanks to her Game of Thrones connection to director Alan Taylor, actress Emilia Clarke has been seen as a frontrunner for the Sarah Connor role in the upcoming Terminator reboot ever since her name appeared on a shortlist back in November, but now the news has been apparently confirmed. Deadline is now reporting that the British actress will be the new female lead of the Terminator franchise.
This report follows news from earlier this week that Zero Dark Thirty Jason Clarke is in talks with Paramount Pictures to play the role of John Connor. Not only is it odd that the two actors already share the same last name, it's bizarre that Jason - who is 18 years older than Emilia - will be playing her son. That said, time travel has been a part of the James Cameron-created franchise since the 1984 original, so that very well could explain what's going on in that situation. Deadline's sources say that a "trip to the future" is involved in the plot, which would suggest that Sarah Connor is going to be the one time traveling this time around.
It's been reported that the official title of the film will be Terminator: Genesis, and the screenwriting duo of Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier have been developing the script for months now. The feature is dated to be released on July 1, 2015, which means that production will have to start up in the first half of next year. In addition to the two Clarkes, Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to reprise his role as the nearly-indestructible cyborg from the first films in the franchise. Presumably the next step in the casting process will be finding an actor to play Kyle Reese, the character originally portrayed by Michael Biehn. Garrett Hedlund has been mentioned as a possibility.
A story from earlier this month said that Emilia Clarke's biggest competition for the Sarah Connor role was 21 Jump Street's Brie Larson, but it was also reported that The Wolf of Wall Street's Margot Robbie was also at one point being considered. Clarke is best known for her role as the blonde-haired Daenerys Targaryen on the aforementioned HBO fantasy series, but recently got into the feature film world with a role alongside Jude Law in the dark comedy Dom Hemmingway. She will be stepping into a role that was made famous by Linda Hamilton in both The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and she has some pretty huge shoes to fill.
What do you think about this casting? Do you think that Emilia Clarke is a good fit for Sarah Connor, particularly if Jason Clarke is playing John? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
