For the first time, fans are about to see an animated version of James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd’s The Terminator franchise. From films, novels, comics, and additional media, the famed movie series will be adapted into anime. Netflix announced its plans to develop Terminator: The Anime Series in 2021. After two years, the streamer dropped a brief teaser for the new anime at the recent Geeked Week virtual event, teasing everything is about to change.
The quick preview begins with ominous music playing in the background as the phrase, “There is no fate,” appears. From there, the names of the studios that will collaborate to bring Terminator: The Anime Series to the small screen are revealed. Aside from Netflix, the anime will be brought to life by Skydance and Production I.G., along with the filmmaker and writer Mattson Tomlin, who will write the screenplay.
“On August 30th, 1997,” the teaser then flashes. “Two days from now…Everything changes,” it warns as the preview ends. For starters, the said date is when the artificial intelligence network called Skynet starts to be aware of itself and usurps its human masters, which leads to an all-out war between humanity and machines, as seen in the 1991 movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day. From there, resistance fighters and time-traveling cyborgs are born, resulting in a battle that spans decades.
What is Terminator: The Anime Series about?
Directed by Masahi Kudo, Deadline reported that Terminator: The Anime Series would be part of the Terminator universe but feature new characters. Like the second movie, the eight-episode series would be set in 1997, when the AI Skynet became self-aware and started a war against humanity. But amid the future and the past, a female soldier is caught in the middle as she arrives in 1997 to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee.
Lee is working to launch a new AI system that will go against Skynet’s planned attack on humankind. But as Malcolm faces moral issues of his creation, an assassin from the future continuously hunts him, forever changing the fate of his three kids.
You can read the synopsis below:
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.
So far, Netflix has yet to reveal Terminator: The Anime Series's official cast and release dates. Hence, expect more information to come about it in the next days.
