Netflix has announced they’re giving Terminator the anime treatment in a new TV series. The show, which will be based loosely on James Cameron’s beloved sci-fi film, is being helmed by Japanese Studio Production I.G., who are known for their work on Ghost in the Shell.
The reimagining has the working title Terminator: The Anime Series right now, and it will follow a new group of characters over eight episodes. We’ve only got a very brief glimpse at the show from Netflix so far, with the footage featuring the tagline "There is no fate," but the synopsis sounds pretty exciting, teasing time-traveling shenanigans as a soldier is sent back from 2022 to 1997 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," the synopsis says. "As Malcolm navigates the moral complexities of his creation, he is hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future which forever alters the fate of his three children."
The series will be helmed by showrunner Matt Tomlin, who opened up on Twitter about his excitement. "I feel extraordinarily fortunate to be able to make art that is personally important to me, has something to say, but also connects to some of the biggest franchises in the world that dazzled my imagination as a kid," he wrote.
The Terminator franchise kicked off back in 1984 with Cameron’s classic sci-fi starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, as an assassin sent back to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). The film was so popular that it spawned multiple sequels, a television series, comic books, novels, and video games – and now an anime series too.
