Tim Miller breaks down the new Terminators of Terminator: Dark Fate

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The upcoming TERMINATOR: DARK FATE will serve as a direct sequel to TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY, and in keeping with tradition, the film will introduce several new Terminators, including Grace (Mackenzie Davis), a human-machine hybrid who teams up with Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), and Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), an advanced Terminator set back in time to kill Daniella Ramos (Natalia Reyes).

While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, TERMINATOR: DARK FATE director Tim Miller shared a few new details regarding the film's new Terminators.

There’s this new future because of what Sarah did at the end of Terminator 2, and it’s worse than ever. And that gives us the opportunity for these new characters. Gabriel comes from something that is not Skynet, but it’s like Skynet. And Mackenzie comes from something that Kyle Reese and the Resistance did. I tried to keep Gabriel a bit grounded while still interesting; I feel his new weapons and abilities are right for our times but not so ridiculous that it just turns into a visual effects superfest. And the same with Mackenzie’s character — I really liked her origin story. We did an early writer’s room and Joe Abercrombie came up with her as this super soldier from the future, but it comes at a cost to be one of these people. They’re the first people to die, they’re the shock troops who protect the rest of humanity, and her readiness to sacrifice is a really interesting way to come at a character.

While Tim Miller said that it would have been easy to cast someone with an MMA or fitness background as Grace, they felt that it was important that the audience really feel for the character and connect in the same way they had with Sarah Connor in past films. Of course, it was an added bonus that Mackenzie Davis put in the work in order to physically transform herself. "I was very happy to see Mackenzie take the mantle of turning her body into a fighting machine," said Hamilton. "Hopefully she will get all the attention that I got in 1991 for what she has done to make herself ready, to make herself a warrior." In regards to Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800, we still don't know exactly how the franchise veteran will be involved in TERMINATOR: DARK FATE, but Miller teased, "I don’t think people will be ready for what Arnold has become either, because it’s very different." We'll likely learn more about DARK FATE at San Diego Comic-Con in the coming days, and as we've got a team on the floor, be sure to check back here at JoBlo for all sorts of SDCC goodies!

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE will hit theaters on November 1, 2019.