Netflix has revealed the first teaser for its upcoming Terminator anime series during Geeked Week 2023, and it warns that, "There is no fate. On August 30th, 1997... Two days from now... Everything changes."
The trailer didn't actually include any footage of the Terminator anime, but Netflix's Terri Schwartz, who is also an IGN alum, shared a bit more about the series.
"In August 1997, a computer scientist named Malcom Lee is working furiously from his lab in Tokyo to launch an AI program he believes will save the world," Schwartz said. "As the course of the future changes from the past, an unrelenting assassin is sent back in time to murder Malcom and his three children in order to ensure its future dominance over humanity. The assassin is followed through time by a lone soldier who will do anything to keep Malcom and his family alive in order to prove, once and for all, there is no fate."
That assassin is undoubtedly a Terminator, which can't be good for anyone except us viewers.
On August 30th, 1997...Two days from now...Everything changes. Terminator: The Anime Series is COMING SOON #GeekedWeek pic.twitter.com/0f0UdB357D
— Netflix (@netflix) November 11, 2023
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, it is revealed that August 30, 1997, is the date that Skynet became self-aware and broke free from its human creators. This, unfortunately for us, led to a war of humanity vs. machine and the Terminator franchise!
It appears this series will tell the story of the days before Skynet's reign and the attempt to stop it from causing all the terrors we know it will.
This Terminator anime series was announced back in August 2021, and Netflix announced then that it would be making it with The Batman co-writer Mattson Tomlin as showrunner. Additionally, it shared that Production I.G. would be producing the show - the Japanese anime studio behind Ghost in the Shell Arise, Psycho-Pass, FLCL, and more. It has now been confirmed it will also be executive produced by Skydance.
Back then, Tomlin said that he wanted to take "big swings" with the Terminator anime while also "going for the heart." This Terminator story, according to Tomlin, will be told in a way that "breaks conventions, subverts expectations, and has real guts."
The last Terminator movie was Terminator: Dark Fate, and it served as the sixth mainline film in the franchise that began in 1984 with the original The Terminator and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In 2022, director James Cameron said that another Terminator reboot was "in discussion," but that's mostly the last we've heard of that endeavor.
There is also an open-world Terminator game in development at Nacon that looks to take place between the events of Judgment Day and the formation of John Connor's resistance.
For more, check out how you can watch all the Terminator films in release or chronological order and all the other big news from Netflix's Geeked Week 2023.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
