On Aug. 29, 1997, everything changes. That’s the stark warning we’re presented with in the teaser for Terminator Zero, the eight-episode anime series coming to Netflix on Aug. 29, 2024, featuring the voices of Timothy Olyphant, Rosario Dawson, André Holland, Sonoya Mizuno, and Ann Dowd.

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the Arnold Schwarzenegger-led highest grossing film of 1991, it’s revealed that Aug. 29, 1997 is the date that the artificial intelligence network known as Skynet becomes self-aware and usurps its human masters, leading to an all-out war between humanity and machines. Encompassing flesh-and-blood resistance fighters and time-traveling cyborgs, this battle spans across the last decades of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st.

Terminator Zero, created and executive produced by Mattson Tomlin, will be part of the Terminator universe but will center on characters we haven’t met yet. Keep reading if you want to live … or if you want to know everything there is to know so far about Terminator Zero.

What is the Terminator Zero anime series about?

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’s hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future, which forever alters the fate of his three children.

“I was looking at the franchise and the first two movies in particular,” Tomlin tells Tudum. “And why are we still talking about this franchise 40 years later? You strip away killer robots, you strip away Judgment Day, what do you have left? You have stories about families.”

Who’s in the Terminator Zero voice cast?

• Timothy Olyphant (Justified, Deadwood) as The Terminator: Some things about The Terminator haven’t changed. The Terminator is still out there. It still can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you’re dead. Yet as Tomlin tells Tudum, this incarnation of The Terminator and Olyphant’s interpretation isn’t like any we’ve seen before. “It feels fresh and new and wholly its own thing.”
• Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka, Common Ground) as Kokoro: An advanced AI and Japan’s answer to Skynet, if brought online, Kokoro will be endowed with the same power as Skynet. Kokoro must calculate for itself: Is humanity the plague Skynet believes it to be? Or are human beings worth saving?
• André Holland (Moonlight, The Knick) as Malcolm Lee: A genius computer programmer and father of three, Malcolm Lee is haunted by prophetic nightmares of an apocalyptic future. He’s spent the last decade creating a secret artificial intelligence that he believes will be humanity’s last hope.
• Sonoya Mizuno (House of the Dragon, Crazy Rich Asians) as Eiko: Coming from a post-Judgment Day 2022, Eiko is a resistance fighter sent back in time to stop Malcolm from launching Kokoro.
• Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale, MASS) as The Prophet: In the future, The Prophet is the philosophical guide for the human resistance, a light shepherding survivors in the darkness of the unknown future ahead. “There were a couple of people that I wrote characters for,” says Tomlin, “and The Prophet was always Ann Dowd. So her dialogue was written for her cadence of voice … Her performance just rocks.”

Check back for more casting updates, both human and cyborg.

Where can I watch the teaser trailer for Terminator Zero?

The teaser trailer right at the top of this article will transport you through time.

Who are the creators of the anime series Terminator Zero?

The upcoming anime series will be executive produced by Skydance, Japan animation studio Production I.G., and creator Mattson Tomlin. Tomlin, who’ll serve as the showrunner and writer for the series, previously wrote Project Power (starring Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) for Netflix and is currently writing The Batman II.

“Anyone who knows my writing knows I believe in taking big swings and going for the heart,” Tomlin said in 2021. “I’m honored that Netflix and Skydance have given me the opportunity to approach Terminator in a way that breaks conventions, subverts expectations, and has real guts.”

Where can I see first look images from the anime series Terminator Zero?  

Check out the above stills from Terminator Zero.

When is Terminator Zero the anime series coming out?

As the teaser reminds us, there’s no fate but what we make for ourselves. Prepare for your fate when Terminator Zero arrives on the anniversary of Judgment Day, Aug. 29.

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