In all of popular science fiction, the Terminator timeline has probably been revised more than any other. Then again, because the first film begins with a predestination paradox, trying to sort out which timeline was the original sequence of events is kind of beside the point. If you’re going to make a new Terminator film or TV show, there will always be two ingredients: evil AI and crisscrossing timelines.
The new trailer for the upcoming Netflix animated series Terminator Zero boldly asserts a fresh spin on both of those ingredients. While we’re arguably not seeing a brand-new storyline for the Terminator mythos, there is a new canonical wrinkle worth discussing. And the look and feel of this trailer is so refreshing and arresting that this series may very well be the best reboot of the franchise since the T2.
Here’s why Terminator Zero looks great and how it seems to reset — or at least sidestep — the timeline of the original movies.
The Terminator Zero trailer is narrated by its protagonist Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno of House of the Dragon), a time-traveling resistance fighter sent back in time from the apocalyptic future of 2022 to avert Skynet’s attack on humanity. Consistent with the timeline of T2, Skynet is set to decimate humanity in 1997. But there’s a twist: a second AI created to combat Skynet. Invented by Malcolm Lee (André Holland), this new AI is voiced by none other than Rosario Dawson.
The Terminator franchise has pulled a similar trick before. In the 2016 movie Terminator Genisys, the titular AI “Genisys” turned out to be a different version of Skynet from another timeline. But the idea of a rival AI trying to battle Skynet is a relatively new idea unique to Terminator Zero.
While Netflix’s new trailer is light on specifics, we already know a decent amount about Terminator Zero that’s to an official synopsis. For starters, Eiko is “a soldier sent back in time to change the fate of humanity,” and she’s supposed to “protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee.” The synopsis also mentions “the moral complexities” of Malcolm’s new AI, which could hint that he’s created robot bodies for humans, or something similarly creepy. (It wouldn’t be a Terminator story unless there were some good Terminators alongside the bad.)
But regardless of the nitty-gritty ways in which this does (or doesn’t) impact the various timelines of the films, what makes Terminator Zero look great is its aesthetic. The haunting animation style has shades of Arcane with a touch of the anime classic Ghost in the Shell. Timothy Olyphant is set to star as the primary (and seemingly evil) Terminator, while Rosario Dawson is Kokoro, the new AI, whose form isn’t entirely clear at this point. Co-produced by David Ellison and helmed by showrunner Mattson Tomlin, this Terminator project has a lot of confidence, which could carry it to success.
Overall, the cyberpunk vibe of Terminator Zero makes it seem slightly retro, while also moving the franchise forward. In fact, because this style seems so utterly appropriate for the Terminator universe, you can’t help but wonder if the entire franchise shouldn’t have looked like this all along. If someone went back in time and convinced James Cameron to make Terminator in the style of a cyberpunk anime, it might very well look exactly like this.
