Since the release of James Cameron’s seminal classic Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 1991, attempts to push the franchise forward have often resulted in creative missteps. The last installment with Terminator: Dark Fate in 2019 ultimately fell short in dismissing the post-T2 sequels in favor of a new story featuring a non-Skynet threat to humanity. Now, the latest trailer for Netflix’s Terminator Zero anime appears to offer something miles away from the Connor family and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s iconic T-800.
The upcoming series follows Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno), a resistance soldier from Japan in 2022 sent back in time to 1997 under the orders of The Prophet (Ann Dowd) to change humanity’s fate. Eiko must protect scientist Malcolm Lee (Andre Holland) and his family from a mysterious cyborg assassin from the future. The threat to Lee’s life is the result of his development of an AI program called Kokoro (voiced by Rosario Dawson) designed as a competitor of Skynet.
Developed by The Batman: Part II screenwriter Mattson Tomlin, the showrunner told Entertainment Weekly that fans should not expect to see any familiar faces from the movies:
“I think that it’s time to go into new characters and not burden myself with another John and Sarah Connor saga. There’s been a run at that a couple of different times. There are a lot of callbacks to the other films. Fans who really know the movies are going to be doing the Leo meme from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but it’s not going to be as direct as John Connor walks in, because John Connor does not walk in.”
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Terminator Zero also features Justified’s Timothy Olyphant as the voice of the Terminator. Skydance Television’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger serve as executive producers with Production I.G. handling the animation. The eight-episode series will arrive on Netflix on August 29th.
Are you excited about Terminator Zero? Do you think it will reignite interest in the Terminator franchise? Let us know in the comment section below.
