The Terminator series has long flirted with horror. James Cameron’s original film is shot through with an almost slasher atmosphere; Terminator 2 gave us those flame-fuelled visions of Judgement Day; some of the sequels that followed could, arguably, be called horror-shows. But in Netflix’s new anime series Terminator Zero, cinema’s most legendary cyborg saga will be taking an event bigger tilt into scary-movie territory, bringing an additional fear-factor to the (already terrifying) notion of the robot apocalypse.
“I wanted to lean into that body-horror, serial-killer feel of the first film,” showrunner Mattson Tomlin tells Empire, “which was almost like Friday The 13th or A Nightmare On Elm Street.” His show – directed by Masashi Kudō – is set in Japan in 1997, and follows Japanese tech genius Malcolm Lee as he creates his own A.I. to combat Skynet. “The series also incorporates J-Horror [Japanese horror] elements,” explains Kudō. “[We] focused on emphasising darkness and determining what to show and what to leave unseen.”
That includes the new Timothy Olyphant-voiced Terminator. With Malcom’s A.I. creation also drawing the attention of the fighters in the future war, resistance fighter Eiko is sent back to protect Malcolm from a Terminator. And if Arnie’s T-800 was all brute force, and the T-1000 was sleek liquid terror, Olyphant’s takes a spookier form, nicknamed by Tomlin as ‘Creepy Fish Man’. “He’s not handsome, he’s a little cross-eyed,” Tomlin says. “Very spooky. Someone you do not want to meet down a dark alley.” As for Eiko, she’ll bring serious emotional weight. “The model for Eiko was Kyle Reese,” reveals Tomlin. “Her motives are grey at first. But she’s hiding something meaningful, and when it’s revealed, it will hit audiences like a fucking two-by-four.” Prepare to dial the Terminator tale back to Zero.
Read Empire’s full Terminator Zero story in The Rings Of Power Season 2 issue, on sale Thursday 4 July. Pre-order a copy now – choose the Galadriel cover, or the Sauron cover. Terminator Zero streams on Netflix from 29 August.