‘Terminator Zero’ Teaser Trailer Shows the Battle for Humanity Against AI

On August 29, 1997, Skynet AI began its war against humanity. And in the latest installment in the Terminator franchise, the upcoming Netflix anime series “Terminator Zero,” only one person might be able to stop the impending apocalypse.

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Set in 2022, the eight-episode series will follow characters we have not yet met in the beloved franchise. According to a release, “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’s hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future, which forever alters the fate of his three children.”

The voice cast is led by Timothy Olyphant (“Justified”) as the Terminator; Rosario Dawson (“Ahsoka”) as Kokoro, another AI entity that might be able to stop Skynet; André Holland (“Moonlight”) as computer programmer Malcolm, trying to stop what he foresees as an apocalyptic future; Sonoya Mizuno (“House of the Dragon”) as a soldier from 2022 sent back in time to save the world; and, a role written for her, Ann Dowd (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) as The Prophet, a “philosophical guide” for the human resistance in the future.

“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.

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Much like the Terminator himself, the franchise seems unkillable — especially at a time when conversations about artificial intelligence abound. As IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote in his review of “Terminator: Dark Fate,” “The ways in which ‘Dark Fate’ is such a slog du jour only help to underline why the ‘Terminator’ series has always felt so timeless; in a saga about how people never learn and never give up, it’s fitting that the latest chapter should be such an undeniable testament to both of those truths. If this movie is a minor improvement over the unwatchable installments that inspired James Cameron to come back and retcon his baby a measure of redemption, that’s because it recognizes that we always have to save the future for ourselves.”

“Terminator Zero” is executive produced by Skydance, Japanese animation studio Production I.G., and creator/showrunner Mattson Tomlin. The show premieres on Netflix on August 29. Watch the teaser trailer below.