Terminator Zerois the latest major animated series on Netflix and feels like a reset post-Terminator 2: Judgement Day. In my interview with its creator, Mattson Tomlin, we talk about his love for the franchise and how this anime came to be.
Check out the Terminator Zero trailer below!
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If that all sounds familiar, that’s becauseTerminator Zerotakes place around the events ofTerminator 2: Judgment Day, one of Tomlin’s favourite movies of all time and the inspiration for theNetflixanime. “I loveTerminator 2. I think it’s one of the greatest action movies ever, and I know I’m not the first person to say that,” Tomlin exclaims. “It’s also the first movie to scare the crap out of me, it really got under my skin.”
It’s fair to say that after the second Terminator movie, the series had arguably lost its way. The Terminator movies have always been packed with action but at least forThe Terminator(1984)andTerminator 2(1991), it wasn’t short of horror, something that Tomlin was keen to resurrect in theanime.
Skydance Television/Netflix Animation
“I wanted to create something less blockbuster action and more horror,” Tomlin explains. “And one of the things that stood out to me is we’ve never lived Judgement Day in the movies. There was something for me about Judgement Day that lured me in and I decided not to do just flashbacks (or flashforwards). Let’s not postpone Judgement Day, let’s go to August 1997, when the apocalypse happened, boots on the ground.”
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Set in 1995,Terminator 2features a character called Miles Dyson, a scientist believed to be in some part reasonable for Skynet initiating Judgement Day. Malcolm Lee shares some similarities to Miles Dyson but one major difference is, Malcolm is not blissfully unaware of what the future may hold.
“There’s also a part where the Kokoro AI asks “If Skynet wins, what does it want and what then?” and that’s a tough and compelling question to answer. The conflict is easy but the result on the other hand is harder to articulate. Then if we askthatquestion, we’ve got to ask “If humanity is fighting so hard to save itself, what good are we and what have we done on this planet that justifies our existence?”
Skydance Television/Netflix Animation
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Kokoro was created to save humanity, to stop Skynet and to prevent the apocalypse. However, the AI has grown very powerful and very self-aware, and now Malcolm has to convince it that Skynet should be stopped and humanity is worth saving.
“Both Malcolm Lee and his AI are trying to explain who’s good, who’s bad, who’s worth saving and who should die. Then when you consider his children, who are the heart of the story, things get a lot more complicated for Malcolm,” says a passionate Mattson. He goes on to say that ifTerminator Zerowere to continue for more seasons, he wants to see the children grow up, live through the war and battle machines or even have relationships with them. “That’s my dream,” he says with a smile.
All eight episodes ofTerminator Zeroare available to stream now on Netflix.
Topics:Anime,Features,Interview,Netflix,TV And Film
