First Look At Terminator: Genisys

There’s been a lot of mystery around the upcoming fifth instalment into the Terminator franchise, but in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, the magazine gets a first glimpse at the heroes and heroines of the film, as well as what we should expect from the ambitious return of the Terminator universe.

Firstly, there are two special covers for the new issue – showing John Connor (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Jason Clarke) as the leader of the resistance, Kyle Reese (Divergent‘s Jai Courtney), and Connor’s mother, Sarah (Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke), giving each key character the limelight they deserve.

As for some details on the story, there will be a few twists to the canon this time around. Sarah Connor has transformed herself since when Linda Hamilton first sported feathered hair and acid-washed jeans in the role. She’s also not Hamilton’s steely zero body-fat warrior in 1991’s T2. Rather, the mother of humanity’s messiah was orphaned by a Terminator at age 9. Since then, she’s been raised by (brace yourself) Schwarzenegger’s Terminator—an older T-800 she calls “Pops”—who is programmed to guard rather than to kill. As a result, Sarah is a highly trained antisocial recluse who’s great with a sniper rifle but not so skilled at the nuances of human emotion.

“Since she was 9 years old, she has been told everything that was supposed to happen,” says Ellison. “But Sarah fundamentally rejects that destiny. She says, ‘That’s not what I want to do.’ It’s her decision that drives the story in a very different direction.

Terminator: Genisys is scheduled for a July 2015 release.