In Japan, Malcom Lee has been developing another AI system that is intended to compete with SkyNet. As Judgement Day approaches in 1997, Lee finds himself and his three children pursued by a unknown assassin, and a mysterious soldier from the year 2022 has been sent to protect him.[1]
An anime series set in the Terminator universe was first announced in February 2021. The anime was produced for Netflix by animation studio Production I.G and Skydance Television, coming from showrunnerMattson Tomlin and director Masashi Kudō.[2] The show further developed with the working title Terminator: The Anime Series as revealed by Netflix in its 2023 Geeked Week when it announced the premise of following new characters in the year 1997.[3]
Tomlin has stated that the series treats all of the prior films as canon, and Production I.G. requested that it have some kind of Japanese component. The decision was to set the story in Japan, which then precluded using any guns as weapons in the show.[4]
