Terminator: Dark Fate Director Tim Miller on Mackenzie Davis’ Character: “We Did Not Trade Certain Gender Traits For Others”

John F. Trent |

Jul 10, 2019

Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller declared that the film will not “trade certain gender traits for others” in regards to Mackenzie Davis’ character. He also noted her character will “scare the f*** out of” closeted misogynists.

In an interview with Variety, Miller discussed the upcoming sixth installment in the Terminator franchise.

He began the interview by answering a question about how he plans to win over Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. Miller answered in part:

“I really wanted to see Linda Hamilton come back to personally continue her story as Sarah Connor. Like James Cameron, I always find stories about women are much more interesting than men picking up guns. Jim’s movies are grounded in reality and character and just happen to have time travel and robots. I’m wired the same way. I want to give the audience a story about Sarah and these new characters and make everything else as realistic as possible. I want to sit in the audience and believe that this s*** could happen to me. That’s how I’m approaching it.”

Miller then went on to discuss how the idea of Mackenzie Davis’ character, Grace, comes about. He details that he actually brought in a group of novelists to brainstorm ideas for the film before they even brought in screenwriters.

He indicates that Joe Abercrombie, author of the First Law series, “pointed out that the “Terminator” films tend to have a trinity of main characters. One of those is the protector, the Kyle Reese character [portrayed by Michael Biehn in the original, Jai Courtney and Anton Yelchin in sequels]. “

Miller went into detail about the new idea behind this protector character.

“Joe came out with this idea that a new protector from the future is a machine fighter. It’s a painful life, and they’re scarred and take a lot of drugs to combat the pain of what’s been done to them. They don’t live a long time. It’s a very sacrificial role; they risk death to save others. And from the very first suggestion it was always a woman.”

Tim Miller would then respond to a question about the backlash the film received following an early Dark Fate poster and how Davis’ Grace will be received at Comic-Con.

“If you’re at all enlightened, she’ll play like gangbusters. If you’re a closet misogynist, she’ll scare the f*** out of you, because she’s tough and strong but very feminine.”

Miller would add, “We did not trade certain gender traits for others; she’s just very strong, and that frightens some dudes.”

He would then specifically address some of the online responses he’s seen.

“You can see online the responses to some of the early s*** that’s out there, trolls on the internet. I don’t give a f***.”

Terminator’s Trinity of Characters

Given that Miller was open about the idea of the protectors and the trinity of characters, it’s possible it could lead credence to the theory that Terminator: Dark Fate will be removing John Connor and will instead replace him with Natalia Reyes’ Dani Ramos. However, it’s possible Ramos might be another leader of the resistance and the Terminators have given up on trying to take down John Connor. This idea was explored in Terminator 3 before the Terminator discovered John Connor.

If you pay attention to the first trailer, the idea of this trinity of characters sticks out like a sore thumb when Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor indicates she cares so much about Dani Ramos because she was her.