New Terminator Series’ Time Travel Was Inspired by a Hit TV Show

SkyNet isn’t done yet. The monstrous AI will terrorize the time stream again in a new Terminator comic. This time around, the genocidal robots have a surprising inspiration. During an interview with Dynamite Entertainment, writer Declan Shalvey spoke about his inspiration for his new comic, The Terminator. Set across space and time, the story features a desperate SkyNet sending various Terminators to kill the ancestors of the resistance. In that vein, Shalvey compared the tale to Quantum Leap, the ’90s series starring Scott Bakula:

Once I was asked if there was a license I’d like to do, what would it be? And my answer was Quantum Leap, because I love that show. And I realized the other day that actually I’m kind of doing that with Terminator, except it’s Quantum Leap from hell. And that’s just interesting, the one thing I’d like to do I’ve kind of made it into something else.

In Quantum Leap, Bakula stars as Sam Beckett, a man who habitually falls through time and inhabits the bodies of various people throughout history. The series recently had a reboot, also titled Quantum Leap, that starred Raymond Lee as Ben Song, a character in a similar situation to Beckett. While the Terminator franchise has always involved time travel, it’s easy to see where Shalvey’s Quantum Leap inspiration comes in: the comic will involve various one-shot issues set across the timeline.

Terminator’s Time Travel Rules

The Terminator franchise is no stranger to time travel. Barring Terminator: Salvation, the entire franchise is built on the concept. The set-up is simple: having finally been defeated by humanity, the leader of the machines, SkyNet, sends robotic assassins through time in order to attack the Connor family — a family that will eventually lead to his defeat. Meanwhile, the resistance sends its own agents back in time to stop SkyNet.

Throughout its history, Terminator has had various approaches towards time travel. The first Terminator is a simple time loop: Sarah Connor is protected by Kyle Reese, a man from the future, who impregnates her with John Connor, the man who goes on to defeat SkyNet. Terminator 2: Judgement Day is slightly more optimistic, with its proclamation that “There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.” There’s an implication that the future machine war could be averted.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines decided to go in a different direction. The end of that film showed that time is predetermined, and nothing can be done to avert the future. The various sequels and spin-offs that came after this movie continued to alter the rules of time travel in the Terminator universe — some opted to use parallel timelines instead, while others simply ignored what came before and chose to tell their own story.