Terminator Zero Trailer: Judgment Day Awaits In New Netflix Sci-Fi Anime Series

"This isn't what you think it is. You can't see it yet." So says Sonoya Mizuno's time-traveling resistance fighter Eiko at the beginning of the first trailer for Ghost In The Shell studio Production IG's new eight-part Netflix anime Terminator Zero. But whilst those words may be true for Malcolm Lee (André Holland), the scientist whose AI tech could be the key to taking down nefarious ne'er-do-wells Skynet, we can see the trailer for Mattson Tomlin's (The Batman II) standalone spin-off from James Cameron's blockbuster sci-fi franchise right now. Go ahead — check it out below;

Nuclear blasts! T-800 endoskeleton faces! Flayed skulls! Smoking guns! This teaser may only offer a glimpse at what Terminator Zero — which is set in post-T2: Judgment Day Japan, circa 1997 (and also 2022) — has in store for fans, but what a glimpse. Seriously, how has an anime take on the Terminator universe taken this long when it looks this good? When Empire spoke to Mattson Tomlin for this month's The Rings Of Power issue of the mag, the showrunner explained how he wanted to lean into the "body-horror, serial-killer feel of the first film" with his new series. And, given the flashes of violence (the aforementioned skulls; blood-spattered hallways) and menacing shots of Timothy Olyphant's Terminator — aka 'Creepy Fish Man' —that we get here, it looks like he and his team are set to deliver and then some.

And if you want a little more info on what awaits in the series, then here's the official synopsis: "Caught between the future and the past is a soldier (voiced by Sonoya Mizuno) sent back in time to change the fate of humanity. She arrives in 1997 to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee (André Holland) who works to launch a new AI system (Rosario Dawson) 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."

Also heading back to the future (and the past) for the new series is Ann Dowd, who plays enigmatically named resistance guide The Prophet. Terminator Zero will mark the first new entry in the Terminator franchise since 2019's Terminator: Dark__Fate, and is set to add yet another thread to the tangled web that is the series' noodle-twisting timeline(s). We'll be right there with you, red string and pins in hand, trying to make sense of it all when the series arrives on Netflix on 29 August. Or, as we like to call it, Judgment Day.