Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...
We have yet another cast member set to scuffle with Skynet in Alan Taylor's TERMINATOR: GENESIS. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that character actor (and editor-in-chief of The Daily Bugle) J.K. Simmons is in talks to join Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, and Jai Courtney as "a weary and alcoholic detective who has followed a bizarre case involving Sarah Connor and robots for more than three decades (since 1984, which, not coincidentally, is the year the original movie, directed by James Cameron, was released)."
Maybe this is a huge stretch, but when I read that, my mind immediately shot to the one character in the original TERMINATOR whose fate was unresolved…Lance Henriksen's Sgt. Hal Vukovich.
While its presumed that the T-800 waxed his ass when he was stampeding through that Los Angeles precinct, but his death (unlike that of his partner, Paul Winfield's Ed Traxler) was never shown onscreen or even hinted at. Even if Cameron meant to imply his death, we know they are retconning at least some of this stuff by jumping back and forth through time, so sparing Vukovich into his old age is a definite possibility. Plus, there were rumors that Henriksen was set to reprise the character in T2 AND T3, so there's certainly a precedent for speculating that he made it out of that mess alive.
Of course, this is all speculation, and Simmons may very well be in talks to play the first completely new character we've heard about thus far. But seeing as they seem to be tying this film as closely as possible to the original two entries, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if we see Simmons as Vukovich finally getting confirmation that Kyle Reese (and, by extension, Sarah Connor) weren't quite as crazy as they originally thought.
What you guys think? If Simmons is Vukovich, is it a good match, or should he just play an entirely new character?
TERMINATOR: GENESIS is gonna go back in time on July 1st, 2015.
-Vincent Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
Follow Me On Twitter
