Upcoming Terminator Animated Show Is Delivering Exactly What The Franchise Has Been Missing For 15 Years

Summary Terminator Zero will be an animated series with 8 episodes and focuses on new characters in 1997 and 2022.

The new Terminator show is a fresh take on the franchise, departing from the familiar live-action format and bringing the saga back to television 15 years after The Sarah Connor Chronicles ended.

The return to the small screen could revitalize the Terminator franchise by allowing for more character development and exploration of the saga's confusing timeline.

Terminator Zero, an upcoming anime series set in the world of Terminator, is delivering exactly what the franchise has been missing since 2009. Following the underwhelming box office results of Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate, both of which received mixed reviews and couldn’t live up to the original films, the future of the Terminator franchise on the big screen is unclear. Although there have been talks regarding Terminator 7, whether there will be a new Terminator movie featuring characters like the T-800 and Sarah Connor anytime soon remains to be seen.

Even though there hasn’t been a great, universally praised Terminator movie since Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the franchise that started with James Cameron in 1984 is too big not to continue in some form. The Terminator timeline may be confusing, but it allows for retcons, reboots, and remakes that don’t need must justification to exist. As such, it is no surprise that a Terminator animated series is happening. In fact, Netflix’s Terminator show is exactly what the franchise needs ahead of the uncertainty regarding Terminator 7.

Terminator Zero Is Bringing The Terminator Franchise Back To Television

Terminator Zero will have eight episodes

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Terminator Zero will be the first Terminator TV show since The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which ran between 2008 and 2009. The Terminator anime will have eight episodes and will take place mostly in 1997, although it will also follow characters in 2022 thanks to time travel. Terminator Zero is seemingly adhering to the timeline established in the first two Terminator movies, with Aug. 29, 1997, described as the day Skynet became conscious and declared war against humanity. Per the show’s official synopsis, Terminator Zero will feature new characters created for the series.

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 is hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future which forever alters the fate of his three children.

Although trying to make sense of all the Terminator timelines can be quite difficult, Terminator Zero has a relatively simple premise that mirrors that of the original films. A human soldier from 2022 will go back in time to reach out to a scientist who is working on an AI that could be as powerful as Skynet. It’s interesting to notice that names like Sarah Connor, John Connor, and the T-800 are not mentioned in Terminator Zero’s official plot description. None of the movie characters appear in the first official images either.

An eight-episode anime series can deliver the compelling, innovative Terminator story the saga has been missing.

Regardless of how Terminator Zero will tie into the movies, the series looks incredibly promising. After so many disappointing Terminator movies, from the uninspired Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines to the confusing Terminator: Genisys and the underwhelming Dark Fate, it is time for the franchise to try something new. The animation medium has allowed a lot of IPs to reinvent themselves, including but not limited to comic book adaptations and video game sagas. An eight-episode anime series can deliver the compelling, innovative Terminator story the saga has been missing.

Why The Sarah Connor Chronicles Was The Only Terminator Show For 15 Years

Terminator is a movie franchise first and foremost

Before Terminator Zero, The Sarah Connor Chronicles was the first and only Terminator TV show. The series originally aired on Fox, with 31 episodes released between January 13, 2008, and April 10, 2009. Set after the events of Judgment Day but disregarding Rise of the Machines, The Sarah Connor Chronicles was the first of many Terminator properties to rewrite the franchise’s canon to tell a story that would contradict a previous one. It served as the immediate sequel to Terminator 2 that Terminator 3 wasn't, following Sarah and John after their encounter with the T-1000.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ declining viewership numbers and high budget were reportedly the reasons that led to the show’s cancelation despite the relatively good reception of the story. Compared to the fast-paced, action-packed movies, The Sarah Connor Chronicles had way more time to explore the characters and play with the concept of time travel. It also made some interesting additions to the Terminator lore, although most of them would be ignored in future installments. Still, Terminator is primarily a movie IP, having grossed over $1.4 billion at the box office.

Terminator Zero Is Already Very Different From The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Terminator Zero is taking a different approach from The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Terminator Zero may be marking the franchise’s return to the small screen 15 years after The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but the upcoming Netflix series is already very different from the adventures of Sarah and John in 2007. Firstly, Terminator Zero is animated, whereas The Sarah Connor Chronicles is live-action. This means Netflix's Terminator Zero story will not be limited by what its budget can accomplish, a problem that The Sarah Connor Chronicles and many other sci-fi TV shows had to deal with. Another important difference is that Terminator Zero is a streaming project.

Related The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ Cliffhanger Ending Explained: What Was Going To Happen Next? Set after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was canceled after just two seasons. Here's how it ended.

The upcoming Terminator anime was created for Netflix and will have eight episodes, which could not be more different from the release model of a network show like The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It’s unclear whether there are plans for the Terminator anime to have multiple seasons, but Netflix is no stranger to limited series. Lastly, Terminator Zero follows brand-new protagonists, whereas The Sarah Connor Chronicles revisited two of the franchise’s most iconic characters – Sarah and John Connor. Terminator’s return to TV is excitingly different from the saga’s previous attempt at telling a story on the small screen.

Why Returning To TV Is Good For The Terminator Franchise

The small screen could be positive for Terminator

Custom image by Yeider Chacon

A return to the small screen may be what the Terminator franchise needs to find itself again. All Terminator movies released after T2 failed to recapture what made the first two movies so good, either because they struggled as films or because their premises weren’t properly executed. For example, while the idea of following an adult John Connor at the height of the war between humans and machines sounded incredibly exciting, Terminator: Salvation was extremely disappointing. Likewise, despite Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return as the T-800 in Genisys, the film wasn’t good enough to launch a new saga.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is streaming on Hulu.

Terminator Zero can be a unique Terminator story with amazing visuals without having to worry about launching a new series of blockbuster movies. Even when considering the budget limitations of a live-action TV show, the television format can benefit Terminator in many ways. A Terminator series can have the time to carefully establish its timeline and connection to the movies as well as to develop the characters and take them in unexpected directions. Hopefully, Terminator Zero can be the first of many Terminator series, be it in live-action or animation.

Terminator Zero releases August 29, 2024.