10 Dead Characters Returning For Future Movie Sequels

4. Sarah Connor - Terminator: Dark Fate

How She Died

After being the most important hero in the first movie and then a major figure in Judgment Day, Sarah Connor was eventually quietly off-screen before the events of Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, after Linda Hamilton turned down the offer to appear and die halfway through the movie.

In that timeline, Connor died of leukemia in the late 90s, likely from exposure to the radioactive cores of the Terminators in the first two movies. She was also killed in the original timeline before the Terminator travelled back in time, as she died fighting the machines in 1997.

She survived in the timeline hinted in the alternate ending to Judgment Day and presumably survived in the timeline after Terminator Genisys, but Terminator: Dark Fate follows the timeline established in Judgment Day, in which she died of cancer.

But Wait...

Confusingly, Sarah is back for Dark Fate, as the marketing materials have all confirmed. She's older, but it's still the same character and she's very much not dead.

Will It Be Explained?

Apparently, Terminator: Dark Fate is a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day and will disregard absolutely everything else after it. Which means that her death in the background of Rise Of The Machines is no longer canon. Which also means that she's no longer contracted cancer, which ALSO means her exposure to the Terminator cores no longer matter.