What's Up With John Connor In 'Terminator: Dark Fate'?

Yesterday, James "Still Making Those Avatar Sequels" Cameron accidentally (?) revealed that Edward Furlong was coming back as John Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate. This news hadn't been revealed before, and it caught all of us completely off guard. So what's the deal? Was Cameron correct? Was he just having a bit of fun? Or has the strain of making back-to-back Avatar films broken his brain? Some new details have surfaced, revealing that Cameron was mostly telling the truth – with a catch.

During a video message at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday, James Cameron revealed that not only is Linda Hamilton back for Terminator: Dark Fate, but her on-screen son Edward Furlong is returning as well. This news didn't quite fit with previous reports that indicated actor Jude Collie had been cast as a young John Connor for flashback scenes. There were some reports that Furlong's face would be digitally added over Collie's, but that doesn't indicate Furlong is really back, does it? Is Furlong coming back as an adult?

Bloody Disgusting has the answer, and while we haven't been able to confirm this ourselves, it does fit with info we've been able to gather independently. Potential spoilers follow, so be warned.

Collie really is being used as a body double for the young John Connor, and Furlong's face really is being added in digitally. But this won't just be a digital version created from nothing, nor will the film be using footage of Furlong from Terminator 2. Instead, Furlong actually delivered a brand new performance (presumably via motion capture) that's been digitally placed over Collie's face. In other words, while Furlong isn't going to be appearing in the movie as an adult, he did film new scenes, so Cameron was telling the truth.

Of course, we still don't know what role John Connor plays in Dark Fate. The character hasn't been mentioned at all in any official promotional material, and the closest we've got is Cameron mentioning that the new sequel will "be continuing John's story". It's likely the filmmakers are keeping a big secret or two about John close to the vest, and we'll just have to wait until Dark Fate hits theaters to find out.

Terminator: Dark Fate opens November 1, 2019.

27 years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a new, modified liquid metal Terminator (Gabriel Luna) is sent from the future by Skynet in order to terminate Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), a hybrid cyborg human (Mackenzie Davis), and her friends. Sarah Connor comes to their aid, as well as the original Terminator, for a fight for the future.