With the addition of Dayo Okeniyi to TERMINATOR: GENESIS, the primary casting is complete and now Alan Taylor‘s film can begin production. Okeniyi nabbed the role of Danny Dyson, son of SkyNet creator Miles Dyson, a role rumored to also to have been possibly going to ATTACK THE BLOCK’s John Boyega. According to Deadline, the two actors were both being courted by TERMINATOR: GENESIS as well as J.J. Abrams and STAR WARS: EPISODE VII. While this does not mean that Boyega is a lock for STAR WARS, it seems like this casting is likely narrows their field in half.
Okeniyi may not be a recognizable name (yet), but he is best known for the role of Thresh in THE HUNGER GAMES as well as an appearance on the Abrams-produced NBC series REVOLUTION. The Nigerian-born actor appears to be committed for a three picture deal as Paramount is planning to begin production shortly on TERMINATOR: GENESIS in Louisiana followed by a second and third film shot back to back over a nine month period. That’s right, we can expect this to be a finite trilogy of films to wrap up the John Connor saga before rights revert to James Cameron.
From previous comments made by Arnold Schwarzenegger, TERMINATOR: GENESIS will be directly connected to the existing TERMINATOR canon while telling a unique time travel story that both returns to the time period in Cameron’s original THE TERMINATOR and simultaneously telling a distinct story.
TERMINATOR: GENESIS will star Emilia Clarke as Sara Connor, Jason Clarke as John Connor, Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800. The film is slated to premiere July 1, 2015.