The Terminator is coming back and this time he will be an anime.
Netflix and Skydance, the company that holds the rights to the long-running sci-fi franchise, have teamed up to produce an animated series based on the James Cameron-created killer robot from the future movie series.
Mattson Tomlin, who co-wrote the upcoming DC movie The Batman as well as Netflix’s own superpowered movie, Project Power, will act as showrunner and executive producer.
The series is being produced in partnership with Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, B: The Beginning) with whom Netflix has had a production line deal with since 2018.
Terminator launched in 1984 as a low-budget B action movie that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and co-written and directed by Cameron. The concept proved resilient and the movie helped push both men’s career into overdrive, however it was with 1991’s Terminator: Judgement Day, which became a box office and cultural blockbuster, that a franchise was truly born. There have been a total of six movies of varying degrees of fan and box office success, the last one being 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate, as well as a 2008 live-action series and a couple of web shorts.
Related Stories
Details of the new take were not revealed but Tomlin is known for his big and dark concepts.
“Anyone who knows my writing knows I believe in taking big swings and going for the heart,” said Tomlin in a statement. “I’m honored that Netflix and Skydance have given me the opportunity to approach Terminator in a way that breaks conventions, subverts expectations and has real guts.”
Said Netflix’s vp of Japan and anime, John Derderian: “Terminator is one of the most iconic sci-fi stories ever created–and has only grown more relevant to our world over time. The new animated series will explore this universe in a way that has never been done before.”
Tomlin was thrust in the spotlight when he, as an up-and-comer, teamed with Matt Reeves on the relaunching of the Batman franchise. The Batman, which he co-wrote, stars Robert Pattinson and is due to open March 4, 2022. His Project Power starred Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and dealt with pills that gave its takers superpowers.
Upcoming credits include sci-fi feature Little Fish, starring Olivia Cooke and Jack Reynor, while in development are screen adaptations of comic books Fear Agent and Memetic, and video game Mega Man.
He is repped by Grandview and Bloom Hergott.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day