Sarah Connor was successful in disrupting the Skynet/Cyberdyne timeline, which results in a new threat being faced in Terminator: Dark Fate. “AI is still trying to extinguish humanity, but it came out of a different company called Legion, and the Terminators are labelled as Revs. In our film you get to see Rev-7 and Rev-9,” explains Visual Effects Supervisor Eric Barba (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). The change in robotic manufacturers meant that the Terminators were made from a different technology. “There are some similarities with the Cyberdyne world. For example, the glowing red eyes is an iconic Terminator thing. However, there are differences, as our endoskeleton isn’t made of steel and hydraulic rams but of titanium and carbon muscles, so you don’t see the additional hydraulics.”

Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) takes over the mantle of human resistance leader from John Connor, and like those before her, has become the target of assassins sent from the future. “Like the first Terminator movie this is about her evolution,” explains Miller. “At the beginning of Terminator: Dark Fate, Dani is the last person you would think would rise to be the great leader of humanity. Not that she’s not a good person or intelligent or strong-minded. It’s just that Dani comes from circumstances that you wouldn’t expect the greatest to rise from normally, which makes it interesting for me. You can see her evolution over the course of the film into this person who has the strength to lead people through Judgment Day and take the fight to the machines.”

A tricky balance was honoring the past while still bringing something distinct to the cinematic franchise. Remarks Miller, “Here is where we can extrapolate and do something different. Some of that was built into it. Cyberdyne was destroyed, which means that there’s a new future with new technology. But you don’t want to throw away the baby with the bath water. When it came to designing a new Terminator, we had some early designs where they had removed the skull. I said, ‘No. That’s iconic of the brand.’ We made it look different. Jim was insistent that this version would have half of a head to show that it had no soul. Then we have Linda and Arnold coming back. I wanted to do more with what this new future was and how the war between humanity and the machines was going. But you have to walk that line of honoring the franchise while still giving people something new.”