Justin Lin denies original cast returning for Terminator 5

Just last week we learned that a new Terminator film was being shopped around, and that it would have Fast Five director Justin Lin at the helm. Oh, and some guy named Arnold Schwarzenegger.   Soon after, rumors started flying about the original cast, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn and so forth, would be coming back in a film titled Terminator 2012.  Always seemed a bit thin to me, which is why I sorta ignored it.

Now MTV has spoken to Lin and asked him specifically about that rumor, and he seemed pretty surprised by the whole deal. He says....

Lin: I don’t know where that came from. Everything has just been between me and Arnold, you know? Just us going out and trying to find the right partners. I have certain elements, but it’s never been about, ‘Hey, let’s bring everybody back!’ I just don’t process that way. To me, thematically, there are certain things that I want to see in a ‘Terminator’ movie. A lot of that does draw back to creating this timeline that is an extension, closer tonally to the first and second movies. But to me, it’s not as mathematical as, ‘Hey, let’s get everybody back together and we’ll shoot the movie.’

Now he doesn't flat out deny it, but to me it sounds like that whole rumor was bogus. I personally don't want those characters to return. They've served their purpose and pushed the story forward. The only thing I hope is that Lin isn't going to start from scratch, and will at least address the Terminator Salvation storyline. He made another statement sounds to me like he's considering more of a stand-alone story...

Lin: I always feel like what’s great about the ‘Terminator’ franchise is that there’s time-travel and there are different timelines to play with. There are also a lot of gaps from what we love about all of the ‘Terminator’ movies, so there’s a lot of things we can do and play with. To me, all of that, I don’t really want to discuss it now. That’s part of the fun of developing. But the bigger questions for me are always the characters and the themes. You want to start there. But obviously, answering your question, ['Terminator'] does have that capability, finding fresh ways of going back without destroying other [movies], because you can tell your own stories.