Terminator 2: Judgment Day star, Edward Furlong, has always been pretty vocal about his eagerness to return to the franchise that made him a household name in the nineties and kicked off an acting career which would see him performing alongside some big, big Hollywood names. But the actor’s reputation and personal life have been marred by drug related controversies over the years – a factor which has severely limited the types of roles he has been offered.
When James Cameron told excited Terminator Fans at SDCC 2019 that Edward Furlong would be back as John Connor for Terminator: Dark Fate, the news spread through the internet like wildfire, but the rumors were already swirling that John Connor would be terminated at the very beginning of the movie.
In a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) Tim Miller was asked to clarify John Connor’s role. The director stated:
“All I’m gonna say is that John is in the movie… in a very interesting way. I don’t want to give away, I can’t give away the way he’s in the movie or what happens because, ya know, you gotta come to the theater for some reason, right?.”
Though it seems that Eddie wasn’t really in the right headspace to return to the legendary role of the leader of the human resistance John Connor, as when he was asked about only returning for one day of filming (for facial capture) on Terminator 6, he said:
“I understood, because it was right when I first got sober, so I understood sort of what my life, uh, my life decisions had brought me to at that point, so I mean- and I really wasn’t in a, in a place when they were making that that I could’ve done that- I mean I was… I was busy doing a lot of, uh, heroin, you know what I mean?”
Edward Furlong told Alex Leyba – Transcribed by TheTerminatorFans.com
Back in 2019, Edward Furlong explained that drugs had also played a big part in the recasting of John Connor for Terminator 3: ROTM. He stated:
“I was part of the project [T3] and had a very nice deal but then I guess to celebrate I went out and overdosed on coke and kind of destroyed that whole thing. BUT…. I learned my lesson and I’m back on track.”
The T2 star on his feelings on the death of John Connor at the beginning of Terminator: Dark Fate, Edward said:
“Personally, I thought this is not going to go over well. I, I kind of figured like, you know, like,- with the fan base, because I mean, because I knew that Terminator 2 is such a big… you know, thing, and, and when they said, when they said I was in it and like people came up and were like ‘oh my god! I’m so glad you’re in the movie!’ I was like *sucks teeth* ‘yeah… ‘. It was kind of like after all the different John Connor’s that have played it, like, and I messed up like, I kinda brought… you know, got back, sort of like what I felt like was rightfully mine, you know what I mean?
So, it was nostalgic you know, I mean would I have loved it if like I got to be in the new, you know, Terminator and did the whole movie and made more money than I did, and uh, you know, probably still be making money… ? yeah! I would love that that would be awesome, that’d be really awesome though.”Edward Furlong – Transcribed by TheTerminatorFans.com
On the Terminator fanbase reaction to John Connor’s death:
“I knew it was gonna be, um, I, I had a feeling that it was gonna be uh, it was, it was going to piss people off. People are so invested in that character by the end of the movie [T2], it’s like you know a lot of people my age grew up with that character and everything, so, you know I was kind of like ‘oh my god, you’re gonna blast them with the shotgun, a 13 /14 year old kid, all right, that could be… all right.”
Edward Furlong – Transcribed by TheTerminatorFans.com
Terminator: Dark Fate director, Tim Miller, on the decision the kill off John Connor:
“Oddly enough, not Jim, not a single writer, uh, not Linda, not anybody – but perhaps Eddie Furlong, had anything at all to say but ‘Oh yeah, this seems like the right way to do it.’”
Tim Miller told TIFF
There’s nothing to say that, had Mr. Furlong been clean and sober back when Terminator: Dark Fate was TBA, that it might have made a difference – the studios cards were clearly already on the table as far as wiping the slate clean and resetting the franchise to a new and uncertain future, one with a more female-centric story to lead into that pre-planned three-picture-arc.
But, having said that, sober is better. So it’s a shame that we’ll never know.
Do you think Edward Furlong deserves another shot at the mantle of John Connor?
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