In October 1984, James Cameron gave the world one of the best sci-fi movies of all time with The Terminator, an intense action thriller that would spawn a massive franchise consisting of multiple sequels, comic books, video games, and even a TV show. Now, 40 years later, the property is about to get the anime treatment.
One of the most anticipated upcoming Netflix shows, Terminator: The Anime Series will offer a new spin on the popular franchise that turned Arnold Schwarzenegger into a global threat and introduced unforgettable movie quotes. If this is the first you’re hearing about the project, worry not, because we’re about to break down everything we know about this exciting animated series.
What Is The Terminator: The Anime Series Premiere Date?
While Netflix has announced that Terminator: The Anime Series is happening and will be coming out sooner rather than later, the streaming giant has yet to provide an exact premiere date or window of release for the expansion of the beloved franchise.
Considering there’s already a page for the show on the Netflix app, there’s a good chance we could see this new series appear on the 2024 TV schedule. But again, this is just speculation on our part, but we should know more in the coming weeks and months.
The Terminator: The Anime Series Announcement Video Teases Judgment Day
In November 2023, Netflix confirmed that Terminator: The Anime Series was “coming soon” to the popular streaming platform with the release of the first announcement/teaser trailer. The 45-second video doesn’t offer up any scenes from the upcoming animated series, stops short of introducing the new characters (especially new forms for the Terminator cyborgs), and keeps the details light, but it does provide a couple of bits of information that sound pretty exciting. Check it out below:
Judging by the three lines of text featured in the announcement video, the series will take place days before Skynet becomes self-aware and wipes out much of the human race on Judgment Day, the day “everything changes.” For now, we’ll have to sit with our anticipation as we await a full-fledged trailer for Terminator: The Anime Series.
The Series Will Follow A Soldier Sent Back In Time To Protect A Scientist Targeted By Skynet
The vast majority of the movies in the Terminator franchise have included time travel in some shape or form, and that will once again be the case for the upcoming anime series. Shortly after the Terminator: The Anime Series announcement, Deadline covered details concerning the show, including some information on its plot.
According to the official synopsis, the streaming series will center on a soldier from the future sent back to 1997 to find and protect Malcolm Lee, a scientist on the precipice of launching a new AI system that could stand up against Skynet and its impending attack on humanity. Malcolm, whose voice actor has not yet been revealed, will also be the target of a mysterious and unrelenting assassin who has also been sent back in time to prevent the scientist from completing his life’s work.
The show will feature several of the franchise’s hallmarks, including moral complexities, future wars, and cold killing machines that will stop at nothing to carry out their mission.
Terminator: The Anime Series Will Consist Of Eight Episodes
Though we don’t yet know when Terminator: The Anime Series will debut on Netflix, we do know the first (and hopefully not only) season will play out over the course of eight episodes, thanks to the Deadline report mentioned above.
This was the same amount of episodes ordered for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the animated continuation of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which debuted in late 2023. Unlike the Scott Pilgrim series, which brought back the cast from the original movie, the new Terminator show will feature new characters not in the various films set within the universe.
It should also be noted that Netflix has yet to reveal the runtime for each of those eight episodes, but if we use Scott Pilgrim Takes Off as a model, the chapters could be around 30 minutes apiece.
Mattson Tomlin Wrote The Anime Series And Will Serve As Showrunner
Back in February 2021, when we were just a little more than a year removed from the release of Terminator: Dark Fate, Netflix announced that it was developing its own addition to the popular franchise in the form of the upcoming anime series. At the time, it was also announced that Mattson Tomlin, who wrote the Netflix original film Project Power before working on The Batman’s script revisions, would be writing the series as well as serving as its showrunner.
Tomlin, who is also penning the script for Matt Reeves' The Batman Part II, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, after the release of the November 2023 announcement video to share an update and his own enthusiasm for the project, saying:
I wrote a TERMINATOR anime. It is real, it is coming. And it absolutely will not stop. #NoFate
Tomlin hasn’t posted much in the form of updates for Terminator: The Anime Series since then, but he has shared a ton of gifs and images from older Batman movies, which is exciting for fans anxiously awaiting Robert Pattinson’s return to Gotham City.
The Animation Is Being Handled By Japanese Studio Production I.G., Best Known For The Ghost In The Shell Anime
Terminator: The Anime Series is being made, in part, by several entities: Netflix, Skydance, Mattson Tomlin, and Production I.G., the latter of which is handling the animation efforts for the series. If the name Production I.G. sounds familiar, it could have something to do with the fact that the company has created some of the best anime movies and shows to date, including the highly-rated Ghost in the Shell 1995 animated film (not to be confused with the disappointing 2017 movie of the same name).
Fans of Kill Bill, one of Quentin Tarantino’s best movies, may also remember Production I.G. from the animation house’s eye-poping and attention-grabbing O Ren Ishii segment from the first half of the two-parter. The origin story of Lucy Liu’s deadly character still gets a lot of love 20 years after its release.
Expect to hear much more about Terminator: The Anime Series in the future as more details become available. While we wait, now would be a good time to check out some of the best 2023 anime movies and shows that are currently available with a Netflix subscription.
