Today is a very significant date among Terminator fans for two reasons. One, August 29th, 1997 in the franchise’s continuity is when Skynet launched the nuclear holocaust that came to be known as Judgment Day against humanity, causing the deaths of 3 billion people across the planet and ushering in decades of a war against Skynet and its machines, namely the Terminators.
Secondly, it is also the premiere date for Terminator Zero, a new anime series from Skydance and Production I.G. and developed by The Batman‘s Mattson Tomlin. The series is set in two timelines before and after Judgment Day. In the past, an AI programmer is developing a program to compete against Skynet when a Terminator arrives and targets him for assassination while the post-Judgment Day era follows humanity’s war against the machines.
At Fan Expo Canada this past weekend, Ahsoka actress Rosario Dawson spoke briefly about her role in Terminator Zero as Kokoro, the AI program designed in Japan to compete against the US system Skynet. Dawson kept mostly tight lipped about her role, but she did tease that unlike the faceless enemy Skynet was in the original Terminator films, audiences will be able to see Kokoro and hear its perspective.
“Kokoro is dope. She brought the receipts. You’ll know what we mean when you see it. There will be no lies detected,” she said.
This also marks Terminator‘s first animated project and Dawson revealed fans will enjoy the beauty of Terminator Zero‘s anime and the more adult themed violence and subject matter I.G. and Skydance have brought to the series. “It’s really rich anime. There’s some terrifying, really upsetting, startling moments. It’s very emotional, very cool.”
She went on to speak on the connection she and original Terminator star Michael Biehn share now that they have starred in not one but two massive franchises. Biehn of course played Kyle Reese, the resistance soldier sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800, but he also had a role in the same episode of The Mandalorian Dawson made her live-action debut as Ahsoka Tano, starring as a hired gun for the warlord Ahsoka was attempting to capture.
“I just got to see Michael Biehn actually just on the last con I was at last Saturday in Chicago which was so awesome. To be able to share The Mandalorian roles with him and now technically Terminator as well is, like, pinch me, it’s so cool!”
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She also revealed how she and her family have been fans of The Terminator since her childhood and Terminator Zero marks yet another milestone for her in her nerdom. “I love Terminator. I don’t know about you all, but we watched it for generations in my family. We would have literal hours long conversations after, like ‘I don’t really think in the timeline you could possibly – .’ It was a vibe so to be a part of it now is awesome.”
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.
Featuring in the voice cast of Terminator Zero are Timothy Olyphant (The Terminator), André Holland (Malcolm Lee), Rosario Dawson (Kokoro), Ann Dowd (The Prophet) and Sonoya Mizuno (Eiko).
Terminator Zero premieres tomorrow on Netflix.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
