Entertainment
‘Terminator Zero’ casts Rosario Dawson, ‘House of the Dragon’ star, and more (exclusive)
It’s time to meet the main players of Netflix’s upcoming Terminator Zero anime series — and the actors voicing them.
Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka), André Holland (Shirley), Sonoya Mizuno (House of the Dragon), and Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale) join the cast in prominent roles, Entertainment Weekly can exclusively confirm.
Holland voices Malcolm Lee, a computer programmer who, in the year 1997, is haunted by prophetic nightmares of an apocalyptic future. A father of three, he has spent the previous decade secretly creating an artificial intelligence by the name of Kokoro that he believes will be humanity’s last hope.
Kokoro, voiced by Dawson, is Japan’s answer to Skynet and, when brought online, will have the same power. But the AI must decide for itself whether humanity is worth saving or if it’s the plague Skynet believes it is.
Mizuno, currently seen on TV as Mysaria/the White Wyrm of HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel, voices Eiko, a resistance fighter from post-Judgement Day 2022 who is sent back in time to stop Malcolm from launching Kokoro.
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Dowd will be the voice of the Prophet, who is the philosophical guide for the human resistance in the future, acting as a light that shepherds survivors in the darkness of the unknown the lies ahead.
All four join the previously announced Timothy Olyphant (Justified: City Primeval), who will be voicing the titular Terminator assassin that is sent back in time to hunt down Malcolm, drastically changing the future of his three children.
“I knew that I wanted to tell a time-travel story, and I knew I wanted to tell an almost Godfather-like multi-generational saga that would ultimately follow this family with these kids,” showrunner Mattson Tomlin previously told EW of his vision for the series. “What I wanted to do, if we get to do multiple seasons, is to see these kids grow up and see who they become.”
The eight-episode first season will mark the franchise’s first animated offering. “I looked at the whole thing and went, ‘Let’s treat everything like it’s canon,'” Tomlin said. “We’re not going to pretend that the third movie didn’t happen. We’re not going to pretend like the sixth movie didn’t happen. They’re all valid, and the reason that they can all be valid is because of time travel.”
Terminator Zero premieres on Netflix on “Judgement Day” (i.e. this August 29) at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT. See EW’s exclusive photos of the characters above.