Dystopian anime Terminator Zero destroys civilization in its first trailer

On Monday, Netflix released the first official trailer for Terminator Zerothe upcoming anime series set in the Terminator universe. Produced by Skydance Entertainment and Production IG (Ghost in the shell, Psycho-pass), the series is set after the events of 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day and centers on Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno), a soldier sent back in time to protect the life of Malcolm Lee (André Holland), a scientist developing an artificial intelligence that could threaten the genocidal ambitions of Skynet, the evil AI responsible for waging war on humanity. To do so, she’ll have to fend off a Terminator (Timothy Olyphant), a robotic assassin sent to ensure Skynet’s plans go off without a hitch.

As you can probably guess, the trailer features a ton of visual references to the original Terminator film and Judgement dayincluding shots of a nuclear explosion devastating a city, an assembly line of T-800 endoskeleton face plates, a person being transported via a time field generator, and a Terminator tinkering with machinery beneath the exposed flesh of his forearm.

The visuals look suitably dark and explosive, with Eiko running through a blood-spattered hallway and shooting a gas canister to fend off an oncoming Terminator. It will be interesting to see how this new animated chapter in the Terminator franchise builds upon and complicates the very dense (read: confusing) chronology of the films, which focus on the lives of John Connor and his mother Sarah as they attempt to survive a robotic assassin sent from the future to prevent her from leading a successful resistance against the machine masters.

Directed by Masashi Kudo (Bleach) and executive produced by writer-showrunner Mattson Tomlin (Project Power, The Batsman), Terminator Zero will star Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka), Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Timothy Olyphant (Justified) next to Mizuno (Developers) and Holland (High flying bird).

Terminator Zero premieres on Netflix on August 29.