Judgment Day is almost upon us and Netflix has given us a sneak peek of what's to come in the upcoming anime series Terminator Zero. The highly anticipated series from Production I.G and Skydance Television received a new teaser trailer today, and it's packed with intensity and action.
While Terminator Zero is set in the same Terminator universe as the films, it shifts the focus to Japan and on a group of characters we haven't yet met. Time travel is again a big point of focus as the story jumps back and forth between 2022, the future war between humanity and machines, and 1997, when 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," the synopsis reads. "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’s hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future, which forever alters the fate of his three children.
The teaser is actually narrated by this resistance fighter, whose name is Eiko (voiced by House of the Dragon star Sonoyo Mizuno.
"This isn't what you think it is. You can't see it yet," Eiko warns. "But you've been on a collision course your entire life."
"There is no going back. Not really. It will never, ever, stop. There's only one thing standing in between you and him," she continues. "Me."
During all of this, we see quick clips of the nuclear attacks, Timothy Olyphant's Terminator on the hunt, and more chaotic action.
Terminator Zero is directed by Masashi Kudo at animation studios Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Kaiju No. 8) and Skydance Television. Mattson Tomlin serves as showrunner while also providing series composition.
As previously revealed, the voice cast includes Timothy Olyphant as the voice of the Terminator; Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka) as Kokori, an advanced AI that serves as Japan's own Skynet competition; André Holland (Moonlight) as Malcolm Lee, the computer programmer who developed Kokoro; Sonoyo Mizuno (House of the Dragon)as Eiko, a resistance fighter sent back in time to prevent Malcolm from launching Kokoro; and Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale) as Prophet, a philosophical guide for the human resistance.
Terminator Zero is set to premiere on Netflix on August 29, the anniversary of Judgment Day.