Summer Glau's role & name in Terminator Series is revealed - Cast&Crew

Just a hunch... but I'm gonna go with her being the evil one.

Then again, female adversaries tend to be lame and never last very long.

narky | March 04, 19:03 CET

I dunno, "Cromartie" doesn't fill me with warm fuzzies...

UnderTheDark | March 04, 19:18 CET

I am fast becoming very impressed with Summer's range. Don't get me wrong - I loved her as River. And she got to display a nice evolutionary character development arc in the 4400. Most recently, her portrayal of her guest role on The Unit hit me hard. In addition to acting all 'growed up' with some intense and believable emotions, she got to let loose her native Texas accent.

So please forgive me for saying: She may get to be one of the new Terminators, but there can be only one Gubernator!

fanbuoyant | March 04, 19:23 CET

If she gets to dance, this will be good...

daylight | March 04, 19:23 CET

Female adversaries tend to be lame and never last very long.

*cough* Glory, Jasmine, Drusilla, Lilah, Darla. And outside the whedonverse there is Number 6 from BSG and Adria (played by Morena Baccarin) from SG-1, to name just a few!

phil_4rt | March 04, 19:36 CET

As Joss discovered, Summer is a wonderful actress with a great dance talent. To be honest, I would be tickled pink just to watch Summer dance.

Madhatter | March 04, 19:38 CET

More to the point, and more likely I think, her dancing abilities seem to translate extremely well into choreographed fighting. It worked in Serenity and Firefly and I'm betting it will work quite well here...

Septimus | March 04, 19:43 CET

I'm voting for her being the good terminator. Not just because I am automatically on whatever side Summer's on, but also because then she'll probably have less chance of being destroyed and being gone from the series. Plus, the evil female terminator was just done in T3, they need to switch it up.

Niels van Eekelen | March 04, 19:44 CET

I wonder what kind of terminator she will be, just a skeleton body like the governor or liquid metal like the second one. There are questions on how much they will spend on special affects, and why would any machine make a terminator that small.

urkonn | March 04, 19:47 CET

"why would any machine make a terminator that small."

Maybe they have figured out that small to a human means less intimidating and so it would be able to infiltrate human society more easily. ...or not.

newcj | March 04, 20:15 CET

This is the first I've heard of Owain Yeoman being in the series. That should be good too!

marpocky | March 04, 20:31 CET

The male Terminator/Protector thing was done in T2 and the Evil Female Terminator was done in T3. I think it's pretty obvious that Summer will end up being the Good Terminator/Protector/Potential Love Interest for John Connor. There is a lot potential storytelling there.

Zoic_Fan | March 04, 20:47 CET

Heh, heh...Wait. I'm keeping a straight face. Barely..

Madhatter | March 04, 21:01 CET

Zoic_Fan, those are my thoughts exactly. I expect a Data-like robot character learning to be human. Which Summer would probably play extremely well.

But if she is a love interest, there will be jokes about robot girlfriends aplenty. :-P

I haven't been this excited about a newly announced show since... well, since Drive, which hasn't even premiered yet, but you get what I mean.

Niels van Eekelen | March 04, 21:11 CET

They should have cast Shonda Farr. Love Summer but April was the original Girlfriend-Bot!

zz9 | March 04, 21:55 CET

I wonder what kind of Terminator she will be: just a skeleton body like the governor or liquid metal like the second one. There are questions on how much they will spend on special affects, and why would any machine make a terminator that small.

While I know that S.M. Stirling's series of Terminator novels aren't considered canon (and we don't need to be starting that subject of debate again!), I think an idea of his would work very well, urkonn: Infiltrator type Terminators. They are designed to be a lot more like River, in that they are stealth assassins and spies with the ability to blend into their surroundings. Everybody notices a 6' something Austrian walking about and thinks "Not somebody to f--k with!" but no one is supposed to look at someone who looks like Summer and think "She can crush my windpipe with her pinky finger!"

;D

BlueEyedBrigadier | March 04, 22:41 CET

but no one is supposed to look at someone who looks like Summer and think "She can crush my windpipe with her pinky finger!"

Unless they've seen Serenity ;o)

gossi | March 04, 22:58 CET

I hope we get to see the pilot if it doesn't get picked up.

This cracked me up. But I learned to shoot many weapons and how to recognize a Terminator.

Lena, let's hope you don't ever have to use your Terminator-recognition skills in the real world.

Tonya J | March 04, 23:57 CET

I had heard that Summer's character was going to be called Cameron, and thought that was kind of an ironic yet cute twist. IGN had a short, recent paragraph about this, and hinted that Summer will be the protector 'droid. Hopefully, we'll see. This sounds like material that even F*X can tolerate... just hope they don't screw it up!

TDBrown | March 05, 00:08 CET

Well, let's hope that it is good and that it gets picked up for series before blaming Fox for cancelling it, TDBrown. The blame Fox first attitude is getting a little old IMHO.

That being said, I really hope Summer is the bad Terminator. I really want her role to show her range. And I want to see Summer kick a lot of ass. :)

IrrationaliTV | March 05, 01:03 CET

I just realized I still haven't seen the third T movie. In any case, it strikes me as kind of funny that this is in retro-continuity so nothing very important to the overall mythos is likely to happen. (I assume no matter which side Summer's character is on, assuming the show gets a proper finale, then at some point she's probably going to be destroyed.)

I assume that she's probably going to be a goodie though, one probably with a lot of potential for evil red herrings so we'd get to see her be sinister acting either way.

orangewaxlion | March 05, 07:34 CET

I'm so glad Summer's a Terminator!

But I want her to be the evil one...

UnpluggedCrazy | March 05, 09:16 CET

Evil Summer will be fun to watch. I'm sure whatever the role, she's going to be amazing as always.

Ameer | March 05, 09:32 CET

it would have been better if it was set after the events of T3. by having it between the 2 movies they are severly limiting what they can do.

flamepulse | March 05, 10:25 CET

It couldn't be set after T3 and be called "The Sarra Connor Chronicles". Anything done after T3 will have to be very different. Is the plot of T3 considered spoiler here? I just wrote of an explanation and deleted.
I hope they don't limit themselves to continuity with the movie. Can you imagine smallville if they would have limited themselves to continuity with "Lois and Clarke"?

urkonn | March 05, 11:29 CET

why would any machine make a terminator that small.

"Start with the part where Jayne gets knocked out by a ninety pound girl. 'Cause I don't think that's ever getting old." -- Joss Whedon, Serenity

I'm excited about any Terminator!Summer, good or evil. But, yeah, my twin UnpluggedCrazy, evil would be more fun. ;-)

billz | March 05, 11:35 CET

Is the plot of T3 considered spoiler here?

I honestly doubt they're sticking to that for the series--it would be too limiting.

Niels van Eekelen | March 05, 13:52 CET

Its been a while since I've seen T3, but IIRC wasn't there a line were John Conner said that nothing had really happened between the events of T2 and T3. Therefore, any storylines about terminators in the SCC will break the continuity with T3 (unless they are made to forget for some reason, but thats been done so many time before and would be kinda lame).

PS. I have to say I wasn't really into this idea for a series initially and probably the only thing that would get me to watch would be if Summer Glau was playing a terminator... so I guess I'll be wathing then! (Assuming it gets picked up.)

stfletch2000 | March 05, 15:23 CET

Before they even announced the series, I read something on a fansite that said T3 was an alternate future line. I think that was fan enthusiasm for T1 and T2 refusing to take T3 as canon (sound familiar?) but if that's the take of the series producers, it opens up a whole world of possibilities for the series. Either way, I've always liked the idea of a Connor 'Monkeywrench Gang' and now with a terminator shaped like Summer I'm even more enthusiastic.

cabri | March 05, 17:38 CET

Well, given that the storyline features time-travel as an integral part of the universe, i'd say they don't have to worry about continuity too much (the whole premise is based on one huge 'continuity error' since if John Connor was alive to kick Skynet's arse then sending a Terminator back clearly didn't work, right ? Or did it ? ;).

No reason they can't fudge Sarah Connor not dying of leukemia (or any other continuity liberty they want to take) with a bit of time-travel (or even just a line or two about how the time lines have become unstable or somesuch). 'No Fate but What we Make', yes ?

Could be good this. I quite like Summer as a Terminator, room for character growth but also for some very cute fish-out-of-water/ain't-humans-weird style humour (and as others have said, Terminators are primarily infiltration units - otherwise there's no need for the 'org' part of 'cyborg' - so a seemingly harmless, not to mention physically attractive, young woman would be a good choice of cover).

Saje | March 05, 17:58 CET

According to IESB Summer will in fact be playing a good Terminator "come back to protect John Connor just as her predecessor Terminator in the film, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzeneggar, did in T2 and T3."

Derf | March 05, 19:30 CET

I'll be glad if it is the good terminator because I think it gives more of a chance for a long lasting role, and more of a chance for interesting character development.

This sounds like it could be really good for her. I hope it makes it to air.

newcj | March 05, 20:08 CET

Most importantly, the bad terminator hardly talks, there is just no need for it to talk, so good thing summer is a good one.

urkonn | March 06, 01:52 CET

"Good terminator" sounds like such an oxymoron. Couldn't Cameron be simply a good android from the future? Oh, well that is a bit tame & lame. Maybe, "weaponized defensive AI-bot..." Um. Perhaps "AI protector genetic replicant..." Er, hum... I give up. Good terminator will have to be good enough.

fanbuoyant | March 06, 04:06 CET

"Good terminator" sounds like such an oxymoron. Couldn't Cameron be simply a good android from the future? Oh, well that is a bit tame & lame. Maybe, "weaponized defensive AI-bot..." Um. Perhaps "AI protector genetic replicant..." Er, hum... I give up. Good terminator will have to be good enough.

I wouldn't stress the phrase "good Terminator" much, napua...Summer's Terminator is presumably another captured and reprogrammed SkyNet warrior, so there could be at least one tale of her base programming getting rebooted;D

BlueEyedBrigadier | March 06, 05:39 CET

as much as i would love to see summer on the tv again i hope this show doesnt get picked up. i have enjoyed the movies but i fear this will destroy any hope for the franchise.

flamepulse | March 06, 11:59 CET

March 04 2007