Recasting The Characters Of Terminator (If It Was Made Today)

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"The T-800 can only be the Rock or Jason Momoa"

Both those guys are too well known, too likable and too overexposed now. You can't take a guy who does toothpaste commercials...and place him in the very dark and scary role of the original Terminator film. Remember, back when that original film came out, people barely knew much about Arnold. They just knew he was foreign, dominated the world of bodybuilding, and had a couple roles in some dark, B-movies (like Conan the Barbarian). So, he had just the right amount of mystery and mystique, but had not been too overexposed yet.

If cast today, even using The Mountain (that huge guy from Game of Thrones) would probably be too gimmicky. They'd probably need to cast someone nobody has ever heard of....someone from the bodybuilding community more than the acting community. Someone just crazy huge, like maybe one of The Mountain's competitors in the Strongest Man competitions. The role (in the original Terminator) didn't require much acting at all. It was more about being a terrifying screen presence. In fact...ironically, the fact that Arnold was NOT a good actor only helped (since he was essentially playing...a robot!). LOL

David Bautista had a bit of that screen presence early on (until he played a dopey, likable guy in Guardians). He played dark, dangerous and foreboding in Spectre and the Bladerunner sequel.

Actually (IMO)...it would be cooler (and more effective) to go with someone nobody knows. Just like Arnie was relatively obscure to the mainstream in the original. If you go with someone famous, like Momoa...there's no mystique, and he just wouldn't be scary at all. People would be watching thinking: "It's Jason Momoa, wasn't he hilarious in those silly Quicken Loans Super Bowl commercials?"

Instead, if they could find someone unknown, but with some kind of badass background....like a 6'5" fighter from the MMA or Strongman world, that could be cool. I mean....look how effective it was having Robert Patrick as the T-1000. Nobody was familiar with him....so there was none of the celebrity distraction factor. He was a nobody before Judgement Day, and so he became that T-1000 right before our eyes, and we believed it.

Having Idris Elba play a terminator and having him chase/stalk after Margot Robbie (a white woman) the entire movie just, in my perspective, brings up a whole lot of unfortunate implications.