You may remember our article on bringing back the T-1000 and our even more recent article on how fans want Arnold Schwarzenegger to be depicted in a Terminator 5.
The general opinion of fans is that we do not like actor changes and it can just about be expected when it is from child to adult but adult to adult is one way to make fans really pissed off.
Anton Yelchin although a great actor of the new generation did an ok job in Terminator Salvation and made a possibly awful situation a little less awful than it could have been but the general feedback is it just isn’t Michael Biehn is it? A character that over two decades has connected with fans and movie viewers around the world.
Fans always wanted to see Kyle go through time in the future back to 1984 and ideally the wanted arc story of the terminator saga would be the perfect ending for a Terminator saga.
The mess of the Terminator Saga would require 2 movies to end it all, to close the story once and for all. The feedback for T2 is that it was not accepted as the end of the saga, afterall the alternative ending (future coda) did not fit nor was it accepted by test viewers of the movie before release.
Fans do not need a full movie starring Kyle Reese as a main character. That went out the window many years ago. Arnold Schwarzenegger can get away with aging because he is coming out of a factory and can be a new model/skin type however a character like Kyle Reese cannot. We need to see Kyle in the future looking exactly as he did in The Terminator (T1) to believe this is the same universe we connected with.
Recently we saw the character portrayed by Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy (2010) de-aged by twenty-eight years and the likeness of Jeff Bridges from 1982 was made possible, making the digital cameo of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Salvation (2009) look some what inferior. However unlike Schwarzenegger, Jeff Bridges worked closely with the digital effects team to bring that extra realism to his digital persona.
Michael Biehn has aged twenty-six years since his first portrayal of Kyle Reese (T1 and then again in the Special Editon of T2, seven years later), the methods displayed by the effects team for Tron Legacy could be applied to Kyle Reese in the next installment in the Terminator series as a lead up to Kyle’s journey through the Time Displacement equipment back to 1984.
Using the de-aging effects mentioned plus the addition of an actor of similar likeness to Mr. Biehn, a slightly older and more world-weary Kyle Reese could proceed to change the future for the possible benefits of the human race.
For instance an actor like Billy Miller (The Young and the Restless) who has an impressive facial resemblance to Kyle Reese of the Terminator (1984) could be used in conjunction with Michael Biehn (de-aged by an effects team) would make for a more believable portrayal of a character so integral to the Terminator saga but without the fans feeling bemused by the transition from boy,- to the man indicated in the first two movies.
The next movie should be about John Connor coming into his own and becoming the fabled leader of the resistance, sending Kyle (his father) back to protect (and impregnate) Sarah Connor.
For a more realistic performance the body double (in this case Billy Miller) could spend some time with Michael Biehn, learning the mannerisms and character quirks of Kyle Reese, this could be concreted by a strict exercise regime engendering a leaner and more wiry frame straight out of the future war. Michael Biehn would still be the voice and the performance to base all of the acting for Kyle Reese on, without his input Kyle Reese becomes the somewhat lacklustre version played by Anton Yelchin in Terminator Salvation.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE MICHAEL BIEHN TO RETURN IN TERMINATOR 5?
In the midst of Terminator 5 news the Bill Wisher treatments for T5 & T6 apparently contain Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton in the roles they themselves previously inhabited. Would this bring them into the future? or would it be the past (flashbacks of Sarah Connor before her demise?) or maybe Bill Wisher has de-aging in mind himself?
We know one thing the general feedback is that story wise, Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese really have no place unless well crafted storytelling and direction can occur.
Any scenes which would include Kyle Reese would have to be directed very well with distance camera shots, side shots and expert lighting effects to make us believe this young man is being briefed on the way to the time displacement by Connor.
This is how we want Michael Biehn back in the next Terminator movies. To give his character the arc and homage it deserves and not replacing him with someone else to just have him as a main character.
Watch this following video to see just how they could bring back the Kyle Reese of 1984 to Terminator 5.
Thanks to Terminator Fan Kaylah Reese for informing the world about the likness of Billy Miller to Kyle Reese.