"I'll be back," wasn't just a throwaway line in James Cameron 's original Terminator movie. Ever since Skynet first sent time-traveling robots back to solve that pesky human problem, the Terminator franchise has returned time and time again with various evolutions that shift and change like a T-1000. Recent entries have failed to match Cameron's early success though, despite a reboot and even the return of Linda Hamilton with Arnold Schwarzenegger in tow as the original Terminator himself.
Five years on from the muted response to Terminator: Dark Fate, Netflix is returning back to where it all started with Terminator Zero, an anime series developed by Mattson Tomlin, co-writer of Robert Pattinson's The Batman 2. The aptly named Terminator Zero is largely set in 1997 just days before Judgement Day itself, the moment when Skynet became sentient and destroyed humanity in a nuclear holocaust that paved the way for machines to take over. Except, this time around, the story isn't just limited to the US.
Judgement Day was a global event, after all, so in Zero, we're introduced to a scientist named Malcolm Lee who's developed a different AI named Kokoro to stop Skynet before the apocalypse begins. As you might expect, it's not long before he and his three children are pursued by a Terminator as well as a soldier named Eiko from 2022 who's traveled back in time to stop it. It's not just the ‘90s we've come back to though.
With Terminator Zero, the franchise also makes a welcome retu.