First Look at TERMINATOR: GENISYS Characters and Controversial Plot

The last time Hollywood tried to reboot/revitalize the Terminator franchise, we got Terminator Salvation and Christian Bale flipping out on a crew member for distracting him. After Entertainment Weekly revealed our first look at the upcoming Terminator: Genisys on Wednesday, fans of the series might find themselves wishing for the days of Bale.

EW premiered two covers, with one featuring Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor and Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese and the other cover featuring Jason Clarke as John Connor and Matt Smith as a mystery character. The kicker of the reveal was the movie's twist:

Twist No. 1? Sarah Connor isn’t the innocent she was when Linda Hamilton first sported feathered hair and acid-washed jeans in the role. Nor is she 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.”

Yup. Instead of transforming from the innocent character we saw Linda Hamilton play in the original Terminator, Sarah was now raised by Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 and rejects her destiny. Considering she's supposed to be the mother of humanity's messiah against the machines, that's not a good thing.

After Terminator Salvation and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles further convoluted the franchise's storyline, maybe sending a Terminator even further back in time was the only way to keep the franchise alive. Personally, I would've loved to see Terminator Salvation director McG's ideas of unleashing a sprawling time-travel war played out on the big screen, but not many people were fans of Salvation.

Terminator: Genisys is directed by Alan Taylor, who helmed Thor: The Dark World. In addition to the two Clarkes, Schwarzenegger, Courtney and Smith, the movie stars Dayo Okeniyi, Lee Byung-hun and JK Simmons. Terminator: Genisys opens on July 1, 2015.