Posted in: Anime, Netflix, TV | Tagged: netflix, terminator zero

Terminator Zero "Making Of" Video Features Tomlin, Kudo, Dawson & More

Showrunner Mattson Tomlin, Director Masashi Kudo, series star Rosario Dawson (Kokoro), and more share how Terminator Zero came to life.

If you had a chance to check out our review of showrunner, writer, and EP Mattson Tomlin's (Project Power, The Batman II) Terminator Zero, then you know how impressed we were with the animated series' ability to breathe new life into the franchise in ways that we haven't seen since James Cameron's days. Now, Tomlin, Director Masashi Kudo, series star Rosario Dawson (Kokoro), and the animation team take us behind the scenes to show us how the project made its way from concept to critically acclaimed reality.

Here's a look at how the team behind the hit series made the magic come to life, followed by the red band/NSFW official trailer for Netflix's Terminator Zero, which was released in honor of Anime NYC, and a rundown of what else we know about the animated series:

In the following featurette, we get a chance to hear from Kudō, Tomlin, and the animation team as they walk us through how they brought a scene to life, with their focus being on offering viewers something new that still has the "Terminator" vibes that fans are looking for:

Previously, Netflix gave viewers a chance to check out the first six minutes of the animated series over on Tudum – a dialogue-free cat-and-mouse opener that finds Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno) being stalked and hunted by Olyphant's Terminator through what appears to be a nuclear silo in 2022. "I realized the first minutes of the show have to declare what it is," Tomlin shared during a recent interview. "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," he added. "That's just what it has to be."

With the eight-episode animated series having dropped on "Judgment Day" (August 29th), Terminator Zero also stars Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka, Common Ground) as Kokoro, André Holland (Moonlight, The Knick) as Malcolm Lee, Sonoya Mizuno (House of the Dragon, Crazy Rich Asians) as Eiko, and Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale, MASS) as The Prophet.

An advanced AI and Japan's answer to Skynet, if brought online, Kokoro (Dawson) will be endowed with the same power as Skynet. Kokoro must calculate for itself: Is humanity the plague Skynet believes it to be? Or are human beings worth saving? A genius computer programmer and father of three, Malcolm Lee (Holland) is haunted by prophetic nightmares of an apocalyptic future. He's spent the last decade creating a secret artificial intelligence that he believes will be humanity's last hope. Coming from a post-Judgment Day 2022, Eiko (Mizuno) is a resistance fighter sent back in time to stop Malcolm from launching Kokoro. In the future, The Prophet (Dowd) is the philosophical guide for the human resistance, a light shepherding survivors in the darkness of the unknown future ahead. In the following clip, we see how Skynet plans to preserve its future by waging a war in the past:

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. 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.

"I wanted to lean into that body-horror, serial-killer feel of the first film, which was almost like 'Friday The 13th' or 'A Nightmare On Elm Street," Tomlin shared during a recent interview with Empire. "The series also incorporates J-Horror [Japanese horror] elements," added Director Masashi Kudō. "[We] focused on emphasizing darkness and determining what to show and what to leave unseen." As for two of the major players in the animated series, Tomlin had some interesting insights to pass along. "He's not handsome; he's a little cross-eyed. Very spooky. Someone you do not want to meet down a dark alley," Tomlin shared about the look of Olyphant's killing machine. In terms of Mizuno's Eiko, Tomlin shares which popular character from the franchise served as the model for the character – and teases that viewers should keep a close eye on her motivations. "The model for Eiko was Kyle Reese. 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."

Directed by Masashi Kudo, Netflix's Terminator Zero is executive-produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg & Don Granger for Skydance and animated by Production IG (Ghost in the Shell).

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