'Doctor Who' star Matt Smith joins new 'Terminator' film

Former "Doctor Who" star Matt Smith may have left his bow tie and sonic screwdriver behind when he departed the series last year, but at least he'll still be working with time travel and killer robots.

Deadline broke the news Friday that Smith has landed a major role in the upcoming Terminator trilogy, which starts in 2015 with "Terminator: Genesis." Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions later confirmed the news.

According to Paramount, Smith will be playing a new character strongly connected to Resistance leader John Connor, and Deadline reports Smith's role will grow in the second and third parts of the trilogy.

Smith, of course, is best known as the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor from "Doctor Who." He played the Doctor for three seasons before turning the TARDIS over to Peter Capaldi at the end of the show's 2013 Christmas special.

Smith joins an already star-studded "Terminator" cast, which includes "Game of Thrones" Emilia Clarke playing the role of Sarah Connor, alongside "Zero Dark Thirty"'s Jason Clarke as John Connor.

And of course, everyone's favorite ex-governor of California Arnold Schwarzenneger will be reprising his signature role as the nigh-unstoppable T-800 Terminator.

The movie's plot has been a closely guarded secret, but Schwarzenneger did reveal to
MTV last month that his character might appear alongside a younger version of the T-800.

"The Terminator deals a lot with time travel, so there will be the younger T-800 model, and then there will be what that model does later on when it gets reprogrammed."

"Terminator: Genesis" officially started production in April, and is being directed by Adam Taylor. The movie is slated to be released in June 2015.