Despite its relatively robust overseas box office haul, the consensus towards Terminator Genisys is that it's not a good movie. The 2015 film attempted to reboot the Terminator franchise timeline in a major way, but the result was a largely-panned film that didn't even receive much love from its cast. In fact, Solo: A Star Wars Story actress Emilia Clarke even recently admitted that she was "relieved" the film failed so she wouldn't have to return for a sequel. In reference to Terminator Genisys director Alan Taylor, who she'd worked with before on Game of Thrones, Clarke opened up in a recent interview and said:
[He was] eaten and chewed up on Terminator. He was not the director I remembered. He didn't have a good time. No one had a good time.
So it wasn't just the audience that didn't have a good time with Terminator Genisys. Based on what Emilia Clarke had to say about the process of making the film, the shoot wasn't a particularly pleasant experience for her or director Alan Taylor. Then, once it didn't make an impression on critics or domestic audiences, the Game of Thrones star felt relieved that she wouldn't be locked in to continue working on it.
The rocky production process of Terminator Genisys became a well-known fact through the industry. In fact, elsewhere in Emilia Clarke's remarks to Vanity Fair, it was revealed that the crew of Josh Trank's infamous Fantastic Four film even considered themselves lucky to not be on the fifth Terminator movie. Ouch!
As a result of that failure, the Terminator franchise has shifted gears and is now due for a major overhaul under the direction of Deadpool's Tim Miller. James Cameron has returned to the series to produce the upcoming sixth installment, and everything that we know about the project confirms that it will leave behind the narrative seeds planted by Emilia Clarke's Sarah Connor.
Of course, this experience likely helped thicken Emilia Clarke's skin and get her ready for the tumultuous shoot of Solo: A Star Wars Story only a few years later. The project was rocked by the departure of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller last summer, with Ron Howard brought in to retool the film and reshoot many of its scenes. That said, things still seem to be panning out well enough for Emilia Clarke now, as Solo looks like it's debuting to a better overall reaction than Genisys.
Now that Emilia Clarke has moved on to another sci-fi/fantasy on the big screen, audiences can catch her when she debuts as Qi'ra this weekend on May 25. Make sure to catch the latest installment in the Star Wars franchise, and stay tuned for more updates related to the future of the Terminator franchise as well!
