It's Hell on Wheels in the First Images from 'Terminator: Genisys'

Has the totally relaunched, all-new Terminator: Genisys been flying under the radar a little bit? Absolutely it has. Despite the franchise's 30-year history and status as a sci-fi classic, there simply hasn't been much excitement for what next year's film will bring. But maybe that will change now that EW has provided our first looks at the cast, along with dropping some brain-twisting plot details that we hadn't heard until today.

The magazine's twin covers offer a look at Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor and Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese, both sporting a Harley Davidson like the classic Terminator was so fond of; the other features Jason Clarke as Sarah's son and future hero John Connor, and former Doctor Who star Matt Smith. No sign of Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 just yet, but based on the newly-revealed plot he and the other characters won't be as we remember them.

The beginning of Terminator: Genisys, the first of three planned films that Paramount hopes will relaunch the beloved sci-fi franchise, is set in 2029, when the Future War is raging and a group of human rebels has the evil artificial-intelligence system Skynet on the ropes. John Connor (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Jason Clarke) is the leader of the resistance, and Kyle Reese (Divergent‘s Jai Courtney) is his loyal soldier, raised in the ruins of post apocalyptic California. As in the original film, Connor sends Reese back to 1984 to save Connor’s mother, Sarah (Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke), from a Terminator programmed to kill her so that she won’t ever give birth to John. But what Reese finds on the other side is nothing like he expected.

Okay, that sounds familiar, but that's about where the similarities end...

 Sarah Connor isn’t the innocent she was when Linda Hamilton first sported feathered hair and acid-washed jeans in the role. Nor is she Hamilton’s steely zero body-fat warrior in 1991’s T2. Rather, the mother of humanity’s messiah was orphaned by a Terminator at age 9. Since then, she’s been raised by (brace yourself) Schwarzenegger’s Terminator—an older T-800 she calls “Pops”—who is programmed to guard rather than to kill. As a result, Sarah is a highly trained antisocial recluse who’s great with a sniper rifle but not so skilled at the nuances of human emotion.

Crazy, and a good way to give these Terminator films a voice all their own.  Hopefully a trailer is right around the corner. Directed by Alan Taylor, Terminator: Genisys opens July 1st 2015.