New ‘Terminator Genisys’ Trailer Puts JK Simmons In The Spotlight

Terminator Genisys fans have long known that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Emilia Clarke were starring in the reboot of the series. Did any of them know that JK Simmons was also going to play a central role in Terminator Genisys? Since JK Simmons just recently won an Oscar, it appears the producers of Terminator Genisys want to make sure everyone knows he’s not only in the film, he’s in it quite often.

A new trailer has surfaced that brings quite a bit footage that we’ve all seen, but what has been added to the new Terminator Genisys video are a number of different clips of JK Simmons doing what he does best. The veteran actor is mostly shown in scenes with Emilia Clarke, who is recreating the role that was originally played by Linda Hamilton.

In the Terminator Genisys trailer, he’s shown first having problems figuring out just what is going on and what he’s doing in the middle of this crazy scenario. After talking it out with Clarke, he seems to understand why he is where he is and even starts to accept it. It isn’t entirely clear where JK Simmons is going to fall in the Terminator Genisys storyline. Does he really have as much screen time as the new video shows?

Is there a chance the producers of Terminator Genisys are just trying to take advantage of as many big names in their movie as they possibly can? It might be a little from column A and a little from column B. Certainly there wasn’t a lot of talk about JK Simmons being in Terminator Genisys before he won his Oscar.

At the same time that the producers are working overtime to sell the reboot, it seems like some of the films’ stars are also already talking about a sequel. Arnold Schwarzenegger came forward at the end of February to say that filming would begin on the second film in this new storyline in 2016.

While JK Simmons certainly isn’t new to blockbuster films, he’s quite a bit more at home in smaller films like the one he won his Oscar for, Whiplash. JK Simmons was last in the spotlight on a real blockbuster when he played J. Jonah Jameson in the original Spiderman trilogy. There’s some irony in the fact that the series has since been rebooted and he’s now starring in the rebooting of another cherished movie storyline in Terminator Genisys.

[Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]