John Connor might be the savior of humanity in the Terminator franchise, but trying to do anything with the character after Terminator 2: Judgment Day has been a major problem that has destroyed nearly every film or television show since. After numerous attempts to revitalize the franchise, mishandling John remains a recurring and common problem with each new project. For such a simple concept presented in the first film and expanded on in the second, this series just cannot help but overcomplicate itself – resulting in diminishing returns.

From Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines through the most recent entry in the franchise, original ending of T2, which showed a future where Skynet never came to be. Instead, we continue to get dystopian tales of John as a failure in stories that are either wild departures from what made the first two films great, or uninspired rehashes. John Connor's journey epitomizes this.

Why John Connor Is So Important To The Terminator Series

John Connor Being Humanity's Savior Is The Entire Point Of The Story

In The Terminator, it is flat out stated that due to the time loop created by sending Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) back to 1984 to impregnate his mother, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), John has closed the circle and Terminator's so-called "final battle" is over. In the future, John and the human resistance have already won. This was Skynet's last-ditch effort, but it is destined to fail, so long as John finishes the story and sends his father back. The series could have ended with just the original film and it would have made perfect sense.

T2 expands on the quote of "There is no fate but what we make for ourselves" and doubles down on John as humanity's savior, but in an even more satisfying conclusion. Ignoring the original coda that directly spells it out, the theatrical ending still implies Skynet is likely to never be created in the first place, and the actions of protagonists John and Sarah will spare Earth a nuclear holocaust. However, despite how T1 and T2 are the only truly beloved entries in the series, the ever-present lust to continue the franchise for monetary purposes beckons writers to keep navigating avenues that contradict this complete arc.

Every John Connor Twist Has Been A Hollow Gimmick

Playing The "What If" Game With John Connor Is No Substitute For Substance

T3 is where the series' character missteps begin in earnest. John (Nick Stahl) is dead in the future, original ending of Terminator Salvation would have killed him off in the early days of the war, further sidelining the once central character.

Terminator Genisys took this a step further and made Jason Clarke's John the main villain of the film by merging him with Skynet. Likewise, Terminator: Dark Fate decided to kill John from the start to get him out of the way, only to replace him with a carbon copy. The film is a lesser version of the T2 story, where Skynet is renamed as Legion, the T-1000 is the Rev-9, and instead of Sarah teaming up with a good Terminator to save her son, a boy from California, they protect Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes)—a girl from Mexico with the same character traits as John.

The television series The Sarah Connor Chronicles keeps John's importance and value intact better than anything else, but even that ended on an unresolved cliffhanger. Likewise, in Terminator Zero, the timeline explanations essentially toss all the previous characters aside for another "what if" that focuses on Japan. All the new characters are just merged concepts of what came before them, with Malcolm Lee filling in for John and Miles Dyson, Misaki as the heroic Terminator, and Eiko as a combination of Kyle Reese and Sarah. Time and again, these twists have failed to deliver narratively or dramatically.

Writing Off John Connor Is The Easy, But Lazy Way Out

"Taking Out Connor Then Would Make No Difference."

These attempts to rewrite history likely arise because it can be hard to write a story where the hero is destined to win, as it feels like there are no stakes or surprises. In order to create tension and an unpredictable element, writers take the easy way out, sideline John or completely negate his story, and replace him with a new hero that has no expectations to be infallible. Then, with a promise to be better next time and a new novelty stunt or superficial marketing tactic to drum up interest, always with a rewritten timeline for a blank slate, the cycle repeats itself.

All this results in lackluster redoes of T1 and T2 that come across more akin to a Marvel What If or DC Elseworlds one-shot comic, rather than a true sequel. If no one can crack the code to make a true follow-up with John's character written as he was intended to be, then the Terminator story is truly finished and shouldn't continue. Similar to how the Star Wars sequel trilogy merely retold the same basic plot of the originals, recapturing the magic isn't as simple as tossing the Chosen One aside and redoing their story. It will always fail to live up to the classic it will inevitably be compared to. That future is indeed written.