Although the тιтular android ᴀssᴀssins of the Terminator franchise obviously don’t age like normal humans, Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate came up with an in-universe excuse to facilitate original star Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comeback. The Terminator timeline is messy, to say the least, but this has never stopped the series from consistently bringing back its original leading man, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although Schwarzenegger’s T-800 was the villain of the original movie, he became an unexpectedly heroic figure in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and remained a more complicated character throughout the rest of the franchise.

Although 2015’s reboot Terminator Genisys recast Sarah Connor, the movie invented a whole new timeline where a heroic T-800 was sent back to her childhood to protect her so that Schwarzenegger’s Terminator could still play a major role. For all of Terminator Genisys’s mistakes, this was an approach that 2019’s next reboot, Terminator: Dark Fate, opted to repeat. This time, Schwarzenegger’s T-800 was a bizarrely repentant former killer who, after terminating John Connor shortly after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, sought to redeem himself by settling down in the suburbs.

The Outer Covering Of Terminators Is Organic, Not Synthetic

Terminator: Genisys and Dark Fate Revealed That T-800s Age On The Outside

The T-800 models that Schwarzenegger played in Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate weren’t the same character from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as John Connor learned in Terminator: Dark Fate‘s brutal opening kill. The easiest way to tell this is that both T-800 models in these movies look visibly older since their real-life actor Arnold Schwarzenegger aged decades between franchise outings. Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate got around this issue by clarifying that, although the T-800 itself is made of synthetic materials, its outer coating is entirely organic.

This means that the T-800 aged like a normal human being on the outside, which conveniently explained away the star’s changing appearance. Of course, it also directly contradicted the first two movies in the series, where Schwarzenegger’s character can be seen pulling plastic skin off his metal skeleton at various points. Instead of recasting Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate opted to simply rewrite the franchise’s history with this hand-waving solution that doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny.

Terminators Aging Was A Retcon To Justify Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Return

Schwarzenegger’s Comeback Mattered More Than Canonical Consistency

That said, the franchise had already rewritten the rest of its canon numerous times at this point. Whether it was killing off Sarah Connor in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and then bringing her back in Terminator: Dark Fate or inventing a whole new timeline in Terminator Genisys, the series wasn’t overburdened with clear, consistent canon before Schwarzenegger’s return necessitated this particular rewrite. What made the change somewhat ironic was the fact that Terminator: Dark Fate’s T-800 Carl inspired derision from some critics, who argued the movie might have been better with a new T-800.

The Terminator franchise doesn’t appear to have a path forward that doesn’t involve bringing back Schwarzenegger’s T-800, which means making up new rules to justify his changing appearance. Netflix’s 2024 anime Terminator Zero did successfully tell a fresh new story without the original T-800’s involvement, but only time will tell if this affects the franchise’s theatrical offerings. Until then, the Terminator franchise will need to keep coming up with workarounds like Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate did.