Tim Miller on TERMINATOR: DARK FATE and How Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s T-800 Is "Very Different"

We’ve seen very little of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800 Terminator in any of the footage that’s been released for Terminator: Dark Fate. We know that he’s back and that he’s old, but according to director Tim Miller, this version of the character is going to be very different from what we’ve seen before.

While talking to EW, the filmmaker said, “I don’t think people will be ready for what Arnold has become either, because it’s very different.” Well, what has Arnold become!? I want to know what this different version of the T-800 will be? What will make this version different from the others, other than the fact that he’s older? Is he even a T-800!?

Miller went on to set up the story for the new film, and also discussed the new characters – the new super-advanced Terminator played by Gabriel Luna and the human-machine hybrid character played by Mackenzie Davis who teams up with Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor. He said:

“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.”

I like this concept of everything getting worse due to what Sarah Connor did in Terminator 2, and I’m curious to learn how exactly everything in this alternate future came to be. If you want a little more information, we do have previously rumored story details:

“Skynet is no more. Legion has become the new Skynet in an alternate future timeline post Terminator 2. Legion sends a Terminator to kill John Connor in 1998 and in his place a new savior rises in the future — Dani. So, an augmented human called Grace is sent to protect Dani and Sarah Connor joins in on the fight to help protect the child.”

We’ll find out what exactly is going on with the story when Terminator: Dark Fate hits theaters on November 1st.