Cinematically, there aren’t many places left for the Terminator franchise to go. Sequel after sequel has repeatedly rebooted the story and been met with the same disinterest and critical pans. They even brought back Schwarzenegger, Hamilton and Cameron (in a producer role)…and nothing. Three have really only been three good Terminator productions: the first movie, the second movie, and that TV show that aired on Fox in the late 2000s.
If you think in terms of television, there’s still room for Terminator to grow and places for it to succeed. The Sarah Connor Chronicles switched up the formula, turning an all-out action movie into an ongoing soapy drama exploring the characters, their motivations and the history of the Machines. It was a great watch and two seasons weren’t enough.
So if you’re going to do anything with Terminator these days, TV would be the place to do it. Netflix will be venturing into that world soon with the upcoming anime Terminator Zero. The first four images from the show were released by the streamer today.
Terminator Zero will take the focus away from the Connor family for the first time in…well, ever, telling a different story with people we haven’t seen before. It’s a risk to focus on entirely new, unfamiliar characters — there’s a danger the audience may not like them as much. But Sarah Connor Chronicles was a risk as well and that paid off. Now is the time to experiment!
The man above is Malcolm Lee, a scientist in 1997 Tokyo who’s developing a new AI system to compete with that thing in America called Skynet that, for all he knows, is a benign business venture. That’s when a soldier from the future arrives, sent to protect Malcolm from what’s about to come after him and his family.
More details will come soon. This female Kyle Reese is yet to be named, and all we know about the Terminator model below is that its warranty has been voided. Take your guesses as to what the Cortana-like figure in the screenshot with Malcolm is supposed to be…friend or foe?
Terminator Zero is a collaboration between Skydance and Production IG, with executive producer Mattson Tomlin running the show and Masashi Kudo (Bleach) directing. All eight episodes of the first season will debut on Netflix August 29.
