Get ready for the Transforminators to hit screens this year.
The Hunter Killer (HK) models of the Terminator movies existed in the future war; in Jim Cameron’s world these autonomous machines dominated the ground and skies in various forms- eradicating any survivors of Judgment Day.
The models most familiar to fans of the first two Terminator movies is the Flying HK (Aerial)…
followed by the giant skull crushing tank like Terminator Unit…the Ground HK.
If you watched the Terminator Genisys trailer you will see Endoskeletons, Flying HK’s and a model that looks similar to an old design by Cameron; the HK Centurion, which failed to appear in Terminator 2 due to budget limitations- although the Centurion had life beyond the movie in the comics and novelizations of T2.
Now, what we can tell you is something we noticed day dot of the Terminator Genisys trailer- that a Flying HK smashes toward the ground and during those brief frames of moving it looked to be transforming/moving parts changing position. The next shot we see is of Jason Clarke (John Connor) and Jai Courtney (Kyle Reese the father of John) looking up at what looked like a model similar to a HK Centurion. The Flying and ground version are now the same model. Condensing 2 Terminator Units into one unit that in result has no restrictions in traveling between land and air during battle.
You can see the Aerial HK components in the design most notably the center front of the Terminator. However, the legs do look very centaur/hoof like…
We can confirm that the model is called the Hunter Killer (HK) but we don’t know if it has any relevance to the originally designed HK Centurion. It technically doesn’t look like the original Centurion design, so maybe it’s best the studio don’t call it that name or have the Resistance use that nickname, also the machine is too small to be the HK Centurion and it never transformed from a Flying HK in the series. Generally fans never appreciate deviating away from Cameron’s original machine designs and the Centurion did become canon from concept art and comics.
This Hunter Killer resembles more the Tetrapod of Terminator Salvation; T-7-T Tetrapod which is referred to as the ‘Spider’ which was exclusively designed by Thomas Klingström for the Terminator Salvation Video Game. The game was good but rushed due to push from the studio and could be completed in 3 hours but was definitely worth playing more than once.
Although, early leaks of the Terminator Genisys Trailer revealed what looked like the HK Centurion. We figure now the trailer has been released it’s safe to show you the original early CGI shot…. This to us looks like pre-visualization shots done to peg the movement and animation of the HK which was in very early stages before any final cgi was built or decided upon, but elements of the design remain. Although this early shot makes the Terminator look much more threatening in it’s bleak setting devoid of color.
We can now gladly confirm this because Chronicle Collectibles are working on two versions of the Hunter Killer which will be released as premium collectibles.
The Hunter Killer is one of the first products Chronicle Collectibles has made for Terminator Genisys
Paul E. Francis of Chronicle Collectibles; when questioned by us about a Hunter Killer Collectible responded with the following:
“Two separate products, walker is first, 1/18 scale.”
An Aerial HK Walker?
Bill Wisher (one of the original writers on the first two Terminator movies) also dabbled in the idea of transformer-like Terminators in script treatments for Terminator 5 and 6 that were not used. HK Nightcrawlers would have been Terminators that hid in the ground waiting to leap up and slash their victims while interconnecting with other Nightcrawler Units to become even deadlier Terminators.
Terminators that transform into other Terminators, cool or not cool? Share your views in the comments below…