There have been multiple live-action attempts to revive the Terminator franchise. As iconic as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role as the T-800 is, hauling him back every few years hasn’t amounted to much. So maybe taking the animated route will do the trick? That’s the hope for Terminator Zero, which offers a different look at the attempt to stop Skynet’s impending war against humanity.
Mattson Tomlin, a co-writer of The Batman, created Netflix’s anime series. Set in the year 1997, it tracks the creator of a rival to Skynet who finds himself and his family pursued by a killer android, and protected by a soldier sent from the future.
Timothy Olyphant, André Holland, Rosario Dawson, Ann Dowd, and Sonoya Mizuno lend their voices. Episodes were directed by Masashi Kudō, best known for his work on Bleach.
SYNOPSIS: 2022: A future war has raged for decades between the few human survivors and an endless army of machines. 1997: The AI known as Skynet gained self-awareness and began its war against humanity. Caught between the future and this past is a soldier sent back in time to change the fate of humanity. She arrives in 1997 to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee who works to launch a new AI system designed to compete with Skynet’s impending attack on humanity. As Malcolm navigates the moral complexities of his creation, he is hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future which forever alters the fate of his three children.
Terminator Zero hits Netflix on August 29th and runs for eight total episodes.
