I’ll be back… on Netflix! The Terminator returns to screens in Netflix’s new anime

What’s 45 seconds long, incredibly exciting and doesn’t really tell you anything? It’s the new announcement trailer from Netflix, which has just dropped to tell you that Terminator: The Animated Series is “coming soon”.

Other than the iconic typeface, there are no visuals in the first look trailer, just some stirring Terminator theme music. But you don’t need to be a time-traveling killer robot from the future to follow the clues here.

The series was first announced by the best streaming service back in 2021 and promised to “approach Terminator in a way that breaks conventions, subverts expectations, and has real guts”. The show is being adapted by Production I.G., the famous animation studio behind Ghost In The Shell.

What do we know so far about what could be the best Netflix anime? The trailer focuses on the date of August 29, 1997 – or as fans know it, the day that Skynet becomes self-aware and initiates Judgement Day.

What to expect from the Terminator anime series

According to Netflix, the show will feature brand new characters set in the very familiar Terminator universe. In 2022, the war between humans and machines continues to rage To change the course of history and save humanity, a soldier is sent back to 1997. This time around the unnamed soldier, who I like to imagine will be called Carah Sonnor, is given the job of protecting scientist Malcolm Lee.

According to Netflix’s Terri Schwartz, Lee is “working furiously from his lab in Tokyo to launch an AI program he believes will save the world” by foiling Skynet’s plans. Skynet, you’ll be amazed to discover, is not entirely happy with that so it sends a Terminator back in time to kill the scientist, his three children and quite possibly his pets too.

It’s all very Terminator-y, of course, but the big question is which Terminator from which movie? Will it be the terminator of The Terminator or the surprisingly good Terminator: Dark Fate? The flame-haired terminator played by Shirley Manson in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? Or the not very great Terminator we saw in Terminator: Genesys? I’m going to be optimistic about this one.

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