Anton Yelchin is the new Kyle Reese in TERMINATOR UNTITLED!

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Does this quote signal the death of the new Terminator franchise?

Yelchin will play a teen version of Reese, the man who fathered world savior John Connor in the original "Terminator" film. Reese, one of the children who survived a machine-driven nuclear holocaust, befriends Marcus (Sam Worthington), an early edition of the Terminator cyborg played in previous films by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

No it's not the fact that Anton Yelchin (Chekov in the new Star Trek) has signed up to play Kyle Reese. That's fine, and the interactions with him and his son John Connor (Christian Bale) who is going to be so much older than him is going to be pretty interesting. What bothers me is the "friendly Terminator" hint and the reveal of exactly what character Sam Worthington has in this new trilogy. Does anyone have a problem with Reese suddenly becoming a character who befriends robot Terminators? That's now what I saw in the original Terminator movies. Isn't that going against the mythology of this universe? And isn't a friendly Terminator plot boring as hell? Haven't we seen that already? Of all the storylines they could have chosen for a new Terminator movie, it sounds like they are going for the tired old, same old shit. It's a shame, especially with some of the talent on board... and by that I don't mean it's director McG. The Hollywood Reporter also say Paul Haggis (why?) is in talks to jump aboard the writing team for re-drafts and that production will begin early May. Here's a photo of Yelchin, who is Chekov, Kyle Reese and was at one point to be Aquaman. Not bad for someone we had never heard of 12 months ago.