Terminator Zero Showrunner Explains Why The Anime Needed to be Different

Terminator Zero will arrive on Netflix on August 29th, with Production I.G. teaming up with the streaming service to focus on new aspects of the fight against Skynet. One of the biggest changes the first Terminator anime has been touting is the idea that the Connor family won’t be in the series. Routinely, the films will focus on Sarah and/or John Connor as they fight against the mechanical hordes of Skynet, so Terminator Zero taking a different route is a surprise for many. In a recent interview, showrunner Mattson Tomlin broke down the changes that helped forge the upcoming Terminator anime.

In chatting with the outlet Polygon, Tomlin addressed taking on a Terminator project that didn’t have the Connors in the spotlight, “Was it a challenge? No, not really. I think that the movies have been doing the Connors for a long time, and in doing this show, I really wanted to respect the incredible artists that had worked on this franchise before me, and that’s going from the first movie all the way through the last movie.” In the latest movie of the Terminator series, the franchise made a wild decision in seeing John Connor killed following the events of Terminator 2 as Terminator: Dark Fate flipped the script on the franchise.

Terminator in Japan

Tomlin then took the opportunity to explain why the upcoming Production I.G. anime will take place in Japan, “All of the movies have taken place in the States. They’ve all taken place on the U.S.-Mexico border for the most part. And yeah, it’s been about this family and this saga, but I’m doing an animated show and that hasn’t been done before in this franchise. Then on top of that, I’m working with partners in Japan, and I wanted to lean into that strength, so it suddenly dawned on me, we don’t know what’s going on in Japan. Like, there’s no mention anywhere in the franchise about what’s going on really anywhere else in the world. OK, like, Russia launches their nukes, got it.. But then what’s going on anywhere else in the world?”

Tomlin then shared his thoughts on the Terminator franchise as a whole and where Zero fits in, “That first movie is a love story about a man and a woman making a baby, because that baby is very important, but in the context of the movie, it’s just, Here’s a couple coming together and then that second movie is a story about a mother’s love for her son, and meanwhile, there’s [this] surrogate father who’s come in, who has the face of the guy who tried to kill her before, and she has to reconcile what that means. And so I think, for Terminator Zero, it was important to make sure that we had killer robots, the nuclear apocalypse, and a family story that really had dramatic weight. That, for me, is what Terminator is.”

Via Polygon