Arnold Schwarzenegger will be in Terminator Salvation, but in a way that didn’t require him to do any filming (despite that on set picture)…

From Variety:

The Governator revealed in a webcast this week that he may appear in the upcoming “Terminator Salvation,” but when he said he didn’t want to act, he left many fans scratching their heads.

Turns out Schwarzenegger has been secretly working with helmer McG and the effects team to reprise his signature role … without lifting a finger.

A body-cast mold of Schwarzenegger, created when he first appeared as the muscle-ripped cyborg, provided the basis for a digital-effects version of his famous character. The figure appears in “Terminator Salvation” as a living, breathing actor.

Schwarzenegger viewed the resulting footage and gave his go-ahead just in time for McG to include the footage before the helmer completes his cut of the movie.

This is going to sound kind of weird, but I’m geeking out over this.

So often with sequels or prequels that are filmed years after the original, we have to deal with ever so slight continuity changes from old actors playing younger versions of themselves. X-Men: The Last Stand did this pretty well by digitally un-aging Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, but actually having the original Terminator body cast (which I’m kind of surprised wasn’t part of someone’s personal collection or in a Planet Hollywood somewhere) sounds like a really cool way to do this cameo.

Especially since Terminators at this point in the new timeline aren’t always the most human looking, a CGI’d 80s-era Arniw popping up will be a hell of a throwback to the original series.

I don’t know, some people are calling “LAME!” because the Governator didn’t want to act in a franchise that made him a household name, but - seriously folks - it was this or nothing. At least they kept the nod and found a way to do it without plastering an old-looking Arnold on screen as a “new” T-800 model.