Timothy Olyphant leads the voice cast of Terminator Zero, which also features Rosario Dawson. 

Back in November 2023, as part of Netflix’s Geeked Week, we learned of a new Terminator Anime series.

Now, the show – titled Terminator Zero – is almost upon us with a premiere date of August 29th, 2024. Of course, in the lore of the Terminator franchise, that’s “Judgement Day”.

Netfix say that Terminator Zero is part of the Terminator universe, but will center on characters we haven’t met yet. This seems like a wise approach given the multiple iterations of Sarah and John Conner we’ve seen on both big and small screens.

Here’s the synopsis:

2022: A future war has raged for decades between the few human survivors and an endless army of machines. 1997: The AI known as Skynet gained self-awareness and began 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 works 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’s hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future, which forever alters the fate of his three children.

The series stars Timothy Olyphant (Justified) playing the relentless Terminator and Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka) as Kokoro: an advanced AI, Japan’s answer to Skynet, which would have the same amount of power.

Also in the cast are André Holland (Moonlight) as Malcolm Lee and Sonoya Mizuno (House of the Dragon) as the resistance fighter Eiko. Plus, Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale) playing The Prophet – the philosophical guide for the human resistance.

Terminator Zero comes from Skydance, the Japan animation studio Production I.G., and creator Mattson Tomlin.

There’s further coverage, including a series of screenshots, over at Netflix Tudum.