The long-running “Terminator” franchise is coming to Netflix as a new animated series.
The streamer made the announcement as part of its Geeked Week promotional cycle. Under the working title “Terminator: The Anime Series,” the show will follow brand new characters and is being created by Japanese animation studio Production IG (“Ghost in the Shell”).
Here’s the official synopsis: “2022: A futuristic war has raged for decades between the few human survivors and an endless army of machines. 1997: The AI known as Skynet has gained self-awareness and begun 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 is working 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 a relentless assassin from the future who will forever change the fate of his three children”.
Matt Tomlin serves as showrunner, executive producer and writer. Skydance is also executive producing and Masashi Kudo is directing. The Terminator franchise currently spans six films, a television series, novels, comics and video games, but this is the first animated project.
“Anyone who knows my writing knows that I believe in taking big swings and going for the heart. I’m honoured that Netflix and Skydance have given me the opportunity to approach ‘Terminator’ in a way that breaks conventions, subverts expectations and has real guts,” said Tomlin.
The series began with James Cameron’s low-budget 1984 film The Terminator, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cyborg sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), a woman who will give birth to a leader who will save the human race from a robot uprising.
While the first two films in the franchise – 1984’s first chapter and the Cameron-directed blockbuster “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” – are largely considered cornerstones of the science fiction genre, subsequent films have received mixed reviews from critics and audiences.
The most recent, 2019’s “Terminator: Dark Fate, was one of the most warmly received, probably due to the return of Linda Hamilton in a starring role. Sadly, it was a box office bomb.
In recent interviews, Cameron has bemoaned the amount of violence in his “Terminator” films.
“I look back at some of the films I’ve made and I don’t know if I’d want to make that film now,” he said in an interview with Esquire Middle East. “I don’t know if I would want to fetishise the gun, like I did with some of the ‘Terminator’ films 30+ years ago, in our current world. What’s happening with guns in our society turns my stomach.
