Terminator: The new Netflix series has to do almost without guns and that’s because of the setting

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The battle against Skynet continues not in the movies, but on Netflix. New images and story details are now available for Terminator Zero

An artificial intelligence is supposed to learn, but Skynet tries the same tactics quite often: in thene new Netflix series Terminator Zeroa fighting machine is sent back in time to eliminate a target.

This time, however, it’s 1997 and even a location outside the USA: the animated series takes place in the Japanese capital Tokyo and this has a direct impact on how the heroes of Zero defend themselves against the Terminator.

In Japan, there is (almost) no shooting

Author Mattson Tomlin explains in an interview withEntertainment Weeklythat the settingmeans Terminator Zero has to do almost completely without firearms Because in the real Japan, pistols and rifles are also a real rarity. According to Tomlin, however, his Japanese colleagues at anime studio Production I.G. first had to make him aware of this:

I was already aware that there are very few firearms in Japan, but I didn’t fully appreciate how much there really is to it.

Tomlin explains that even first drafts of his story for Terminator Zero had to be reworked to fit the Japanese setting. Specifically, it’s about a scene in which violence breaks out in Tokyo and citizens suddenly take up arms

My colleagues from Production I.G. came up to me and saidHey, so … [in Japan] we don’t really have firearms. If we needed one, we wouldn’t even know where to get it from.&nbspThat surprised me a little, because I realized:Oh, wow, I’m American too.

According to Tomlin, this definitely had a positive effect on Terminator: Zero. It forced the author to come up with creative ways for the heroes to defend themselves against the killer robot from the future. Tomlin says:

If I’m up against a Terminator and I don’t have a firearm to hand, what do I need together?

What else you should know about Netflix’s Terminator series

Terminator Zero starts on August 29, 2024 on Netflixand follows a very familiar story premise: A Terminator is sent back in time to take out a target – in this case, scientist Malcolm Lee. A soldier from the future rushes to his aid to protect him from Skynet’s assassin.

The Terminator series is based on the screenplay byMattson Tomlin(Project Power, The Batman 2) and is animated byProduction I.G. – the studio behind Ghost in the Shell or the animated prequel to O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. The anime doesn’t ignore any of the six films, but takes the first two in particular as its model.

You can read more about Terminator in the links above.

What do you think of Terminator being continued as an anime on Netflix? Are you looking forward to the project or could you do without it with a clear conscience? What are your hopes for the new setting that Terminator Zero explores? Let us know in the comments!