Netflix‘s upcoming Terminator Zero anime adaptation is set to carry the original film’s horror tone, as per showrunner Mattson Tomlin.
CNET reports that the little detail was confirmed during the Los Angeles Anime Expo, with Tomlin stating that the series will channel the “serial killer” vibe of the first 1984 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The showrunner further promises that the Terminator that will lead the anime adaptation will “[come] across as a relentless machine” despite the animation style, with his biggest influences for the show being The Animatrix, Peter Chung’s animated works such Aeon Flux and Samurai Champloo.
Terminator Zero will premiere on Netflix on August 29 with a total of eight episodes. Production IG, whose impressive catalog of work includes Ghost in the Shell and Psycho Pass, will serve as the animation studio while Tomlin will also write and executive produce.
“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,” the official logline reads. “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.”