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Summary In 1997, Malcolm Lee (voiced by André Holland) is getting ready to launch his AI system, Kokoro (voiced by Rosario Dawson) and in 2022, Eiko (voiced by Sonoya Mizuno) is sent into the past to protect him from the Terminator (voiced by Timothy Olyphant) in the anime series from Matt Tomlin.
Created By: Mattson Tomlin
Terminator Zero
Season 1 Premiere: Aug 29, 2024
69
6.5
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Summary In 1997, Malcolm Lee (voiced by André Holland) is getting ready to launch his AI system, Kokoro (voiced by Rosario Dawson) and in 2022, Eiko (voiced by Sonoya Mizuno) is sent into the past to protect him from the Terminator (voiced by Timothy Olyphant) in the anime series from Matt Tomlin.
Created By: Mattson Tomlin
Where to Watch
Coming Soon
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
All Seasons
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 11 Critic Reviews
69
73% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
27% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 11 Critic Reviews
69
73% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
27% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Aug 29, 2024
Terminator Zero sings by grounding its massive sci-fi world in the personal. Like the Connors before them, it’s easy to root for the Lees—and to question their sometimes chilling ethical choices. And no matter how cerebral the show gets, the family drama at its heart ensures that it never feels robotic.
Aug 30, 2024
With glorious animation, Terminator Zero breathes new life into the rusty CPU of the franchise — and might be the best Terminator project since T2.
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 138 User Ratings
6.5
66% Positive
91 Ratings
91 Ratings
14% Mixed
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
20% Negative
28 Ratings
28 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 138 User Ratings
6.5
66% Positive
91 Ratings
91 Ratings
14% Mixed
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
20% Negative
28 Ratings
28 Ratings
Nov 6, 2024
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah Connor unsheathed her combat knife and carved the words “NO FATE” into a picnic table. That phrase has come to define a sci-fi franchise that’s endured across four decades, six movies, and a live-action TV series: Is the future already written, or can it be changed? Are humans and machines alike doomed to follow their worst instincts, or can they make a different choice? Between all the fleeing, shootouts, and split-second decisions, the Terminator films haven’t had much time to mull over these questions. But when you expand James Cameron’s sprawling, time-leaping world over the length of eight episodes, there’s a lot more space to sit down and get existential. Big ideas are at the heart of Netflix’s Terminator Zero, the first major animated project in the franchise. Though there are plenty of knockdown brawls and heart-pounding chases in Mattson Tomlin’s anime, this is a show that’s more interested in brains than brawn. It’s also the first to turn its focus away from the Connors—and from the United States—moving the action to Japan. And though we do get a “Follow me if you want to live,” there’s nary a “Hasta la vista, baby” to be found. It’s no accident that the series is dropping on August 29—the twenty-seventh anniversary of Judgment Day, when Cyberdyne Systems’ artificial intelligence, Skynet, became self-aware and kicked **** nuclear war. Terminator Zero’s central storyline takes place on that fateful day in 1997—not in Los Angeles, but Tokyo. Japanese scientist Malcolm Lee (André Holland), who’s been having the same kind of apocalyptic visions Sarah Connor once did, locks himself in his lab with Kokoro (Rosario Dawson), an A.I. he’s designed to go toe-to-toe with Skynet. Before he can bring her online so she can prevent Skynet from launching the bombs, he first needs to convince her that humanity is worth saving in the first place. Meanwhile, in a war-ravaged 2022, two nemeses are zapping back to the hours before Judgment Day: a non-Schwarzenegger Terminator (Timothy Olyphant) to assassinate Malcolm and resistance soldier Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno) to protect the scientist and his family. And those Lee kids are a handful, between budding robotics wiz Kenta (Armani Jackson), the Gene Belcher–esque Hiro (Carter Rockwood), and the stubborn Reika (Gideon Adlon). Meanwhile, Eiko has a hard time trusting Misaki (Sumalee Montano), the well-meaning housekeeper watching over the children in Malcolm’s absence. It’s a complex pretzel of a plot, and it only gets knottier as the series slowly reveals how entangled the present and the future have become. It’s sometimes hard to follow, too, particularly when Malcolm is broodily expositing to Kokoro; and the show’s grimdark seriousness can feel oppressive (fitting for Mattson, considering he co-penned the script of Matt Reeves’ gloomy The Batman). But the series is saved by its propulsive action scenes, thoughtful writing, and the emotional dynamics of its characters
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Aug 30, 2024
Terminator Zero takes a fresh crack at the most familiar stuff from the Terminator franchise – twisty time-travel hijinks, machine-born sentience, human-cyborg conflict – and lends the story new direction and life, as well as a distinctive, animé-inspired new look.
Aug 29, 2024
Without the restraint of a two-hour cinematic runtime, "Terminator Zero" bites off a little more thematically than it can chew with all of the extra time, but it's a delicious enough first season that I can't help but hunger for more.
Aug 29, 2024
From start to finish, it successfully channels the dread of having a merciless 2-ton killer on your trail, as Production I.G.’s consistent animation and tense shot compositions keep this several-episode-long chase engrossing. And beyond these moments you’ve largely seen before, this story also attempts to break out of the endless temporal loop the series has been stuck in for 40 years. It may not entirely succeed at those aims, but that’s better than many of its peers.
Aug 29, 2024
Terminator Zero isn't a bad series by any means. The questions it asks will make you think, as the lines between what's good and what evil become blurred. It's beautiful to look at, and the story and characters are entertaining, even if they would be more effective in a more condensed format. If you're a fan of the movies, definitely check it out, because it's worth a watch. Just don't expect to be taken back to the awe-inspiring time of those first two James Cameron movies.
Aug 29, 2024
The series takes big swings with a well-earned payoff towards its final few episodes, but it’s bogged down once again by being another underdeveloped eight-episode series that should’ve given at least two more episodes to flesh out its characters.
Aug 30, 2024
Ben oui des Bonhommes.... Ouain Pis... Très bon. Pour moi c'est un succès. Ils ont mélangé le classique T2 avec de nouvelles théories sur les sauts dans le temps. Ainsi que 2 IA c'est littéralement soit un mise en garde ou une fiction mais on ne peut pas rester indifférent. Oui c'est des bonhomme. Ouais pis ça fait quoi? Les sujets sont excellent et les revirements de situations sont fréquents. La dernière scène me pousse encore à la réflexion. A t'il prit la bonne décision? Était de la psychologie du terminator de lui faire croire ça? Bref avec tout l'intérêt que porte l'IA actuellement, en souhaitant que la série animé soit appréciée.
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Sep 3, 2024
A strong start, but by the end of the season the show is drowning in superficial philosophizing and an overabundance of cliched melodrama. There are also a lot of logical screwups that make it unrealistic. Policemen chasing the criminal, ramming the car even though there are innocent children in it - children they are supposedly trying to save. The protagonist literally wasting completely innocent people (scene after a hanged robot explodes in Misaki's face) and sometimes even their friends (Malcolm kills his comrades after they discover Misaki's prototype) with little to no justification. The list goes on. Just because it's sci-fi doesn't mean they can get away with such outrageous things. I didn't particularly like or root for any of the characters. Each of them comes across as either extremely selfish or simply a cold-blooded killer. The writer clearly doesn't understand that no amount of "I'm a living being and they tried to kill me!" or "I have to protect these children!" can justify literally killing innocent people. I think in this series, the Terminator, the supposed "bad guy" of the story, kills fewer people than our so-called protagonists, with whom we are supposed to empathise. Another big problem with Zero is the creators' desire to cram in as much sequel bait as possible. Despite its limited runtime of around 3.5 hours, it has enough characters, locations and lore for at least three seasons, and that doesn't do the series any good. Imagine if Ghost In The Shell, the very first original 1995 full-length anime, had featured all the characters and events from both its sequel and the Stand Alone Complex series. That's pretty much what happened with Terminator Zero. Despite being almost three times as long as that film, there simply wasn't enough time to flesh out all the characters and express the significance of all the events. The last episode is particularly bad in this respect, as it's basically just one big teaser trailer for season 2. I also didn't like the soundtrack. It's too soft, almost mushy at times. Although Brad Fiedel's soundtracks from the original films occasionally dabbled in more chill, atmospheric tracks, it was never the focus, and most of the time the music underlined the urgency and drama of the situation perfectly. The Terminator Zero soundtrack, on the other hand, is so 100% chill that you could mistake it for a Youtube sleep music compilation. Just compare Brad Fiedel's timeless main theme with Zero's main theme and you'll hear the difference instantly. All in all, the series has potential, but the creators need to balance its elements. Make it more thriller and less soap drama. Make it more hard sci-fi, or at least semi-believable sci-fi, and less middle school philosophy class fantasy. And please, for god's sake, if you are going to make the protagonists kill innocents, at least give them a good reason for doing it.
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Sep 25, 2025
I was really excited for this and resubscribed to Netflix just for this show. Unfortunately it ultimately felt like a letdown. I didn't realize it is anime and I'm not a fan of anime. The few action scenes look great but it has all of the anime cliches: terrible voice acting, missing or unfunny humor, too many children, and always the unneeded "cutesy" factor like the robot dog in this case. Terminator 1 and 2 films are some of the greatest action movies of all time, so why is so little of these episodes actual action? Also this story messes with the canon so bad it can't possibly be canon... so what's the point? There are some fun little twists towards the end of the series but overall it barely above average due to the animated action scenes alone.
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Production Company:
- Netflix Studios
- No Brakes
- Production I.G.
- Skydance Media
Initial Release Date: Aug 29, 2024
Number of seasons: 1 Season
Rating: TV-MA
Awards
Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA)
• 1 Nomination
