Actor J.K. Simmons, best known to geeks the world over as J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy, has now joined the cast of the new Terminator reboot, Terminator: Genesis, directed by Thor: The Dark World’s Alan Taylor. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Simmons will play “a weary and alcoholic detective who has followed a bizarre case involving Sarah Connor and robots for more than three decades, since 1984, which, not coincidentally, is the year the original movie, directed by James Cameron was released.”

This lends further credence to the rumors that this movie is not a total “clean slate” reboot, but an in-continuity reboot (kind of like how JJ Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot incorporated elements from the original Star Trek timeline, as opposed to say… .The Amazing Spider-Man, which is a total do-over.) Recent rumors have leaked that suggest many elements from Cameron’s original 1984 movie are being recreated completely – not only is Emilia Clarke playing Sarah Connor and Jai Courtney playing Kyle Reese, but it seems most of the characters that appeared in the original movie are returning, like Detective Hal Vukovich (originally played by Lance Henriksen), Lieutenant Ed Traxler (played by Paul Winfield), Sarah’s roommate Ginger (remember her truly epic hair?), and even Pugsley the Iguana. Of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger will be back as Terminator, although whether he is programmed to kill or protect is still a mystery.

This could be a fascinating experiment or a total disaster (or both), but at least it kind of sounds interesting now. It at least sounds better than Terminator: Salvation. The hope is that this movie launches a whole new trilogy, and the producers only have a few years to do it – James Cameron gets back the rights to the franchise in 2019.