Should Brett Azar Be The Next Terminator Model Number?

Recently a photoshop of Nicolas Cage as a Terminator, dubbed the ‘Cageinator‘ by artist spdrmnkyxxiii (on Instagram), has been doing the rounds and gaining traction across the internet for its sheer originality.

With the image immediately trending on social media – it became somewhat of a talking point; and Terminator Fans across the internet were open and honest about sharing their thoughts and feelings on the idea of legendary actor, and the master of ‘Cage rage‘, taking up the mantle of the next cybernetic organism for a future Terminator movie. With opinions on the image of the Cageinator varying from whole-hearted support and excitement, to guffaws of laughter, to simple point blank disapproval – but the image also refreshed talk within the fanbase of who (if anyone) should be the next Terminator…

Terminator legend Arnold Schwarzenegger, has played the most notable T-800; the CSM 101 (or model T-101, if you take into account that the writers of T3 used the slight change in model number to denote the fact that that Cyberdyne Systems no longer existed).
Terminators in the 800 series were described by creator James Cameron as a “kind of human Panzer Tank” – with the T-800, becoming SkyNet’s first successful infiltrator unit, a unit capable of gaining immediate access to the Resistance.

Arnold’s good friend and fellow bodybuilder, the late Franco Columbu, iconically played another T-800 in the future war scenes of The Terminator (1984); moments which became imprinted upon the psyche of fans of the franchise, but, as we all call out to the studios for a more ‘back to basics’ approach to Terminator movies… it is time to show a future war movie with more T-800 models?

Franco Columbu was originally intended to feature in the future war scenes of Terminator 2: Judgment Day but due to run-time and budgetary restraints, this, sadly, never came to be.

And in Terminator Genisys Aaron V. Williamson briefly played an undisclosed T-800 model in the future war scenes, as Jai Courtney‘s Kyle Reese narrates his backstory – Aaron stated back in 2014 that:

“Thanks to an amazing team of people who help me get better each week, both physically & creatively, I’ll be playing a T-800 (Terminator) in the upcoming production ‘Terminator: Genesis’. I’m extremely grateful & motivated as this new chapter begins to take shape.”

Aaron V. Williamson

Although this wasn’t a very substantial role, and is credited simply as Refugee/Terminator.

Currently the Terminator franchise appears to be stalled, and staring blankly at an unknown future (at least for us fans anyway), but would the introduction of yet another big Hollywood name into the role of killing machine really be that fresh or exciting?
Or, would it be better to open the role up to someone who already has both feet in the Terminator franchise – someone who actually has previous experience with playing the part, and might just bring something new to the table… ?

Following the release of Terminator: Dark Fate last year, we interviewed actor and body double, Brett Azar. Brett played young T-800‘s in both Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate (the notorious young ‘Carl’ in the latter), and despite fans of the Terminator franchise seeming to find those two movies somewhat polarising – Mr. Azar has been warmly accepted by the fanbase, and understandably so.

When we spoke to Brett, his own Terminator fandom became very evident, with him expressing an interest in playing a different model of T-800 to the one portrayed by the iconic Arnold Schwarzenegger – an unfamiliar CSM from the 800 series.

We asked Brett if he would be interested in returning to the Terminator franchise as another T-800, Brett stated:

“That would be even more of a dream come true, to come back as a T-800… ‘110’ model, you know, um Cyberdyne Systems Model– whatever. Hell yes! *laughs*”

Brett Azar

TTFs:

“we all know that SkyNet‘s a super-computer, so it’s not really realistic for it to keep churning out the same, you know, appearance of the T-800 – so it would make more sense to bring out more infiltration units – that look slightly different.”

TheTerminatprFans

Brett:

“There was one when they were telling the backstory – was it T1 or T2? Franco Columbu was an infiltrator Terminator, he was a T-800 but he was a different model. So yeah, a hundred percent – if they were to do another Terminator? I would, Yes. I would urge them to do a different model T-800, or anything really, where I could actually have my face.”

Brett Azar

On the fact that many Terminator Fans would love to see a different model of T-800….

Brett said:

“I one hundred percent agree that it would be cool to have more T-800’s on the line.”

Brett Azar

We asked Brett what he, as a Terminator Fan, would like to see in the next Terminator movie – if he could choose literally anything…

Brett answered:

“That’s a tough one, ’cause there’s so much- there’s so many ideas… I would wanna go back to the very beginning, um, where… I wanna see how SkyNet decided to use, you know, Arnold’s body as the 101. Like I want them to capture Arnold as a human and I wanna see why they chose to use his features to be the 101, you know; like I want the Arnold character to be the human that they capture and then they base his appearance on what they want to produce as a T-800, and have it lead up to sending him to kill Sarah and show the wars that were going on with John Connor at the time – that led them to send T-800s back in time. Yeah, I want that whole prequel of Terminator 1.”

Brett Azar

TTFs:

“It sounds like you want the full loop.”

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Brett:

“Yeah, and I wanna see it from SkyNet’s angle – I know that would be so hard to do, but there’s gotta be someone in charge of SkyNet; I wanna see that- it’s hard to describe, um, because it’s all machine, but it’s- I wanna see that full loop of everything that started.“

Brett Azar

Is it time to see a new model of T-800 – one with a different aesthetic?

Would you like to see Brett Azar play a brutal Terminator in a future war movie?

Leave a comment…

To hear to our full interview with Brett Azar, click the video below: