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Netflix Orders Terminator Anime Series by Production I.G

Netflix announced on Friday that it is partnering with Skydance and the anime studio Production I.G on an anime series in the Terminator science-fiction franchise. Mattson Tomlin (Project Power, The Batman) is serving as the showrunner and executive producer.

Production I.G President and CEO Mitsuhisa Ishikawa said, “I asked my long-time friend and colleague Mamoru Oshii what he thought about the idea of turning Terminator into an animated series. His response was 'Ishikawa, are you out of your mind?' At that instant, I was confident we should get onboard. As huge fans, our team at Production I.G is putting their heart and souls into creating this series. We hope fans will enjoy it!”

The rights holders of the Terminator franchise had planned a Termination collection of animated shorts created by leading European and Japanese "auteurs" in 2008, but the project was not released in the following year as planned. Termination would have focused on Judgment Day, the pivotal day in the Terminator franchise's multiple storylines when the Skynet defense system would launch nuclear weapons that destroy much of humanity. The iconic T-800 robot is a time-traveling weapon of Skynet, and it has been both the antagonist and protagonist in the various Terminator projects since the first film in 1984.

The T-800 did make an official, authorized cameo (pictured above) in the long-running Doraemon television anime series in June 2009. The Doraemon anime's title character is a time-traveling robot cat from the future, and the "dream matchup" was described in the Japanese press as a confrontation between America and Japan's robots. (The Terminator: Salvation film opened in Japan on June 13, 2009, two weeks before the promotional Doraemon cameo.)

Source: Press release