‘Terminator Zero’ Reveals Fiery Fight to Save Humanity in New Trailer

Mark Peikert
·2 min read

“What makes you think humanity is worth saving?” is the question posed at the very top of Netflix’s latest trailer for “Terminator Zero,” the animated eight-episode series premiering Aug. 29.

Notably, there is no immediate answer.

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But the powerful opening sequence of the trailer — which finds scientist Malcolm Lee and his children experiencing the apocalypse before a time-traveling soldier from 2022 comes hurtling into 1997 to try to prevent the Skynet AI from ending all of humanity — sets up the series nicely. In addition to the A-lister voice cast (including Andre Holland as Malcolm, Timothy Olyphant as the Terminator, Rosario Dawson as Eiko, Ann Dowd as The Prophet (a role written specifically for her), and Sonoya Mizuno as the time-traveling Kokoro), the animation by Production IG looks to be both gorgeous and horrifying; seeing someone’s skin burned off in a nuclear blaze is not an everyday occurrence in mainstream animation, and we can’t wait to see what other horrors unfold.

The official synopsis reads, “Caught between the future and the 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 is hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future which forever alters the fate of his three children.”

“Terminator Zero” is the 10th installment in the franchise, after six films (including the most recent, 2019’s “Terminator: Dark Fate”), the short-lived TV series “The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” and two previous streaming series.

Watch the full trailer in the video below, before “Terminator Zero” premieres all eight episodes on the Netflix platform Aug. 29.

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