He came through on his word, as Arnold Schwarzenegger will indeed “be back” to his defining film franchise.  Schwarzenegger is set to return to his defining film role with a new slate of players.  We’ve previously reported about the plans for Terminator to return to the screen as well as online buz about who may be joining the franchise reboot in the important role of Sarah Connor, famously embodied by Linda Hamilton in the original two films. Deadline reports that the job may now belong to Emilia Clarke, one of the actresses who had been called back to read for the role.

If the casting of Clarke is made to be true, it would make a certain degree of sense.  The newest film edition is being directed by Thor: The Dark World director Alan Taylor, a frequent collaborator on the HBO series Game of Thrones, where the recently Emmy-nominated Clarke is a breakout player.  Deadline previously reported that Zero Dark Thirty actor Jason Clarke is on track to potentially play her son John Connor in a plot that seems surely to include time-traveling escapades; however, that hasn’t been confirmed as of yet.  Other actresses in the running for the part included Brie Larson (currently on the awards season trail for her acclaimed role in the indie Short Term 12) and Margot Robbie (who’s about to be on screen as one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s wives in The Wolf of Wall Street.) Clarke is a relative newcomer, and will next be featured on screen in Dom Hemingway starring Jude Law, which premiered this past September at the Toronto Film Festival.

The latest film version of Terminator – the fifth in succession, following 2009’s Terminator: Salvation – is a reboot of the original 1984 James Cameron property, and is being produced by Skydance Productions and Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures. It’s slated to hit theaters July 1, 2015, based on a script by Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island) and Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry.)