Emilia Clarke Admitted That Everybody Hated Working on This Mega Franchise Sequel — And Was Glad It Bombed

When Game of Thrones became a major hit, most of its cast members were tapped to star in other film and TV projects, especially Emilia Clarke. It only makes sense, as Clarke played Daenerys Targaryen, aka the “Mother of Dragons”; not only was Daenerys’ storyline one of the most compelling parts of Game of Thrones, but Clarke’s performance cemented her as one of the show’s best characters, and even led to people naming their newborns after Daenerys. But her first big film franchise flamed out at the box office, and it turns out that she wasn’t too heartbroken about it. That film happened to be Terminator Genisys, one of the latest attempts to reboot the Terminator franchise.

Genisys entered production after the combo of Terminator: Salvation failing to impress audiences and the Halcyon Company, who previously owned the rights to the Terminator franchise, going bankrupt. Annapurna Pictures eventually picked up the rights to the Terminator films, and aimed to reboot the franchise; James Cameron was even consulted, while Arnold Schwarzenegger was brought back as a new version of the T-800. But despite pulling out all the stops, Genisys received a poor reception, and killed what could have been a new franchise for Clarke as she was eventually selected to play Sarah Connor.

Emilia Clarke Narrowly Won the Role of Sarah Connor in ‘Terminator: Genisys’, and Reunited With a ‘Game of Thrones’ Director

Though Emilia Clarke’s star was on the rise, she wound up competing with two other actresses for the role of Sarah Connor – Brie Larson and Tatiana Maslany. In fact, it was a very close race between Clarke and Larson, especially as Paramount thought Larson would fit the role best. Clarke winning the role also reunited her with director Alan Taylor, who helmed multiple episodes of Game of Thrones – including the game-changing Season 1 finale “Fire and Blood”. But during an interview with Vanity Fair, Clarke would reveal that Taylor got “eaten and chewed up” on the production of Genisys. “He was not the director I remembered. He didn’t have a good time. No one had a good time,” she said.

Part of that may have been the fact that Taylor wasn’t the first choice to direct Genisys; the director’s shortlist included Rian Johnson and Denis Villeneuve, while Justin Lin was originally considered when news of a fifth Terminator film broke out. Given how Johnson put his own spin on the time travel genre with Looper, and how Villeneuve would later shake up the sci-fi scene with Arrival and the Dune films, it sounds like Genisys may have been far different in its original stages than what Taylor brought to the big screen.

Poor Marketing & Behind-the-Scenes Issues Led to ‘Terminator: Genisys’ Bombing

Terminator Genisys is notable for two major shakeups it made to the Terminator universe. When Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) travels back in time to save Sarah Connor from being wiped out by Skynet, he learns that rather than the waitress he was meant to save, Sarah is a hardened warrior…and her caretaker is none other than a reprogrammed T-800. This was a bit of a mixed bag: the idea of Sarah Connor working alongside a Terminator rather than fearing it was a tried-and-true concept, but her calling it “Pops” felt a bit too weird, even for a time-travel movie with killer robots. The second twist focused on Sarah’s son John (Jason Clarke), who leads the fight against Skynet in the future; Skynet infects John with technology that transforms him into a Terminator, effectively turning him from mankind’s salvation into its damnation. It’s a rousing twist that would have hit harder if the second Terminator Genisys trailer hadn’t spoiled the big reveal. Alan Taylor eventually revealed that he “had a few heads-ups and a few unpleasant conversations” about the trailer’s contents, but the damage was done. Terminator Genisys premiered to dismal reviews, leading to its two planned sequels and a tie-in television series being canceled.

If audiences were hard on Terminator Genisys, the cast and crew were even harder. Clarke had a rather blunt response when she was asked in 2016 if she’d do any more Terminator films: “No…Can I say that? It’s okay. No. Uh-uh.” Taylor also revealed that the experience of making Genisys was less than joyful. “I had lost the will to make movies,” he said. But the kicker was the production on another 2015 blockbuster-turned-bomb, Fantastic Four (or Fan4stic, as it was derisively referred to.) Fantastic Four‘s crew apparently had jackets made that said “AT LEAST WE’RE NOT ON TERMINATOR”, according to Clarke; considering the reception Fantastic Four still has to this day, that speaks volumes.

Despite ‘Terminator: Genisys’s Failure, Emilia Clarke Managed To Land Roles in Other Franchises

In spite of Terminator Genisys, Emilia Clarke managed to land roles in other major film franchises. She played a pivotal role in Solo: A Star Wars Story as Han Solo’s first love, Q’ira, and recently joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe during the Secret Invasion miniseries. While those projects weren’t met with praise, they weren’t eviscerated like Genisys was, and actually let Clarke show off her range – proving that she had a future outside of Daenerys Targaryen. In fact, she’s slated to have a major role in two upcoming TV series; Prime Video’s Criminal, which adapts the Image Comics series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and Peacock’s spy thriller Ponies. It’s starting to look like Terminator Genisys was a mere speedbump in Emilia Clarke’s career, but the experience of making it isn’t probably something she’d want to relive.