If the name Mattson Tomlin rings a bell, it should. After writing “Project Power” for Netflix starring Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tomlin’s career really took off. He was brought in to help Matt Reeves write on his first “Batman” film with Robert Pattinson, and while he eventually didn’t receive a credit when rewrites evolved, he is writing “The Batman – Part II” with Reeves. And now he’s been given the keys to the “Terminator” franchise on Netflix with the dark and gory anime series “Terminator Zero.”
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The series centers on a warrior from a post-apocalyptic future who travels to 1997 to protect an AI scientist being hunted by an unfeeling—and indestructible—cyborg. The voice cast includes Timothy Olyphant (Terminator), André Holland (Malcolm Lee), Rosario Dawson (Kokoro), Ann Dowd (The Prophet), and Sonoya Mizuno (Eiko).
The series is eight episodes long. Tomlin serves as the showrunner, executive producer, and writer, and Masashi Kudo directs. Skydance (David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger) is the executive producer, and Production IG is the Animation studio behind it.
Here’s the official 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.
There is no fate when “Terminator: Zero” premieres on Judgement Day, August 29, 2024, on Netflix. Watch the brutal red-band trailer below.