The director of Terminator Salvation wishes they had kept the original film's darker ending. Released in 2009, Terminator Salvation was set to be the next chapter in the Terminator franchise, picking up after the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. It was the first film in the franchise to be set entirely during the future war between humanity and Skynet. The film starred Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Helana Bonham Carter and was directed by McG, who had previously helmed the first two Charlie's Angels movies.
Terminator Salvation had a troubled production history, with the most notable being the leaked audio of star Christian Bale yelling at a crew member. However, another aspect of the movie was the original planned ending, which would have seen John Connor die. The resistance would have grafted his skin onto the body of Sam Worthington's Terminator-human hybrid character, Marcus, with the legend of John Connor intending to live on. Building on that, there was a version where Marcus was actually evil and would turn on the resistance, killing them all while wearing John Connor's skin and John Connor becoming the face of Skynet. This script is likely the one Bale called "wonderful," but when it leaked online there was massive fan criticism, and the ending was changed to have John Connor live by having Marcus donate his heart for a transplant.
In a recent interview with THR, McG revealed what he would change in Terminator Salvation if he had the chance. He said he would keep the darker ending they had filmed. While he doesn't elaborate on which one, the implication of the darker ending seems to imply the one when Marcus kills the Resistance . He also wanted to assure the fans of the franchise that he did try to make a good Terminator movie. McG's full comment can be read below:
"I would have stuck with the dark ending that we photographed that got cut. There’s a lot about that film that people enjoyed. And, technically, we pushed some things forward. You can’t have a better actor than Christian Bale. And Sam did what he needed to do, and [we had] Helena Bonham Carter, and Bryce Dallas Howard. We tried to stack the deck. I tried, Terminator faithful, I tried."
McG has hinted at this darker cut of the film before, saying he thinks fans would love to see it. Interestingly, many of the ideas from this script would be used in subsequent Terminator sequels. Terminator: Genisys used the idea of a corrupted John Connor becoming a weapon of Skynet, and Terminator: Dark Fate sees John Connor die, which received a similar negative reaction from the Terminator fanbase as the idea of John dying in Terminator Salvation's original script did.
Had the darker ending gone through, the Terminator franchise could have had a different fate. The bleak ending sort of offers a sense of dark closure for the franchise; however, it is entirely possible the follow-up film could have shifted focus to a new batch of human protagonists who would face off against John Conner and Skynet, continuing the franchise's theme of the future never being truly set and moving it beyond the dynamics of one family. All future plans were scrapped, however, after Terminator Salvation disappointed at the box office, making $125 million domestically against a budget of $200 million. The franchise was later rebooted twice over, with Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate, both of which failed to relaunch the franchise.
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Source: THR
