Netflix drops NSFW trailer for new gory animated show

Terminator Zero is due out in just a few days, and Netflix has dropped a slightly disturbing trailer to get you in the mood.

The show is a blood-splattered anime production that, just like the original Terminator films, is a time travel story in which people try to avert the AI-driven robot apocalypse.

A soldier is sent back in time to 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,” says the show blurb on Netflix site Tudum.

“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 trailer, which is well worth a glance, makes Terminator Zero look entirely badass. It’s no surprise given the animation studio behind the show is Production I.G., which made the original Ghost in the Shell, among numerous other major anime works.

Terminator Zero is directed by Masashi Kudô, who previously worked on the Bleach series and Naruto. And it was written by Project Power writer Mattson Tomlin.

With any luck, Terminator Zero will join the list of surprisingly great animated shows released on streaming in the last few years, alongside Invincible, X-Men ’97, Batman: Caped Crusader and Arcane.

Timothy Olyphant stars as the voice of the Terminator in the show, while Malcolm Lee is played by Andre Holland. His protector, Eiko, is played by Sonoya Mizuno.

There are eight episodes in the first season. And if you’re not afraid of spoiling the release date watch, you can check out the first six minutes of the show for free.

“I realised the first minutes of the show have to declare what it is,” says Mattson Tomlin.

“The way to do that was to have a sequence that had no dialogue, that was really planting a flag in letting everybody know this is going to be violent, it’s going to be dark, it’s going to be action-driven, it’s going to be horrific, and it’s going to be arresting.”

Terminator Zero is out on August 29. For now there's just the one season, with no confirmation of a second, but Tomlin told Popverse he “would love to go five or six seasons” with the show. Make sure to check the show out close to release if you want to see more of the series. Those eyeballs matter to the Netflix execs.

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