10 Insane Reasons Actors Didn’t Return for Sequels
2. Edward Furlong Broke One Specific Contract Term - Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines
It may be able to boast one of the greatest sequels ever in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but since then the Terminator franchise has become more and more convoluted, with multiple timelines, multiple character recasts, and an undeniable decline in quality. Needless to say, recasting John Connor for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is far from the biggest continuity difficulty with the franchise.
T2 saw the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) sent back in time by Skynet to take out the resistance leader John Connor back when he was just a child. The young Connor was played by Edward Furlong in 1991, and after more than a decade, the sequel was greenlit and Furlong signed a contract to return.
However, there was a very specific term in this deal that the actor had to uphold, in that he was to do absolutely no drugs. Already battling with an addiction, faced with the most amount of money he had ever seen in his life, his first move was to take his friends out and completely breach the contract.
As Furlong told the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast, the actor went out to party with his friends to celebrate his new deal and actually overdosed. He regained consciousness several hours later, though the story ultimately reached the producers of the movie and the role of John Connor was recast.