Terminator: Genesis (tentative title) looks like it will have a bit of a funky timeline.  Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) is young again, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is still young, and John Connor (Jason Clarke) is older than the both of them.  There's also an old T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the mix.  With four movies already laid out (I'm assuming the new film will ignore the TV series entirely), and Genesis functioning as a spinoff/sequel/prequel/reboot-thing instead of a straight-up remake, how will the upcoming picture tie into the overall story?

Hit the jump to learn about the possible Terminator: Genesis connection to The Terminator.  Keep in mind that this might be considered a spoiler, so read on with caution.  But before hitting the jump, Paramount has released some exciting news for Doctor Who fans with the announcement that Matt Smith has joined the cast.  Per the press release, "Smith will play a new character with a strong connection to John Connor."  The cast also includes J.K. Simmons, Dayo Okeniyi, and Byung Hun Lee.  Terminator: Genesis opens July 1, 2015.

terminator-heart-rip

According to HitFix's Drew McWeeny [via JoBlo], here's how the two movies connect:

There is a scene in the script where, literally, we see the scene from the first TERMINATOR film where Arnold steps out, the punks threaten him, he rips Bill Paxton's heart out and takes his clothes and wanders off. And as soon as that scene ends, another Arnold Schwarzenegger who is older and beared and a very different version of the Terminator walks in from the side and plays another scene right at the scene of that first incident.

As JoBlo points out, it was actually Brian Thompson who got his heart ripped out, but that's neither here nor there.  The important thing is that this is an intriguing way to bring the films together, although I'm not sure how this shakes out in terms of the narrative.  Is this a Back to the Future: Part II thing where the stories run concurrently, or is this the establishment of an alternate timeline a la J.J. Abrams' Star Trek?  It could be something else entirely.  Only time will tell with this time travel business.