Netflix anime series Terminator Zero has been cancelled after one season.
Series creator Mattson Tomlin (Project Power, Little Fish) shared news with fans in a recent post on X/Twitter, saying low viewing figures had driven the show’s cancellation. “The critical and audience reception to it was tremendous,” he said, adding: “But at the end of the day, not nearly enough people watched it.
“I would’ve loved to deliver on the Future War I had planned in season’s 2 and 3, but I’m also very happy with how it feels contained as is.”
He went on to tell fans he might do a “big thread” about the plans he had for a full five-season run, and looked back at the creation of the series finale.
“The series finale was special, and it was part of my pitch to get the job,” he went on. “I’ve written all of the season two scripts and outlined pretty much all of season three… Maybe I will return to that world in a different form. I really do love it, and it was extremely gratifying to see so many people connect with it the way they did.”
It was cancelled. The critical and audience reception to it was tremendous, but at the end of the day not nearly enough people watched it. I would’ve loved to deliver on the Future War I had planned in season’s 2 and 3, but I’m also very happy with how it feels contained as is. https://t.co/Dh7G6gkBF7 pic.twitter.com/dqCSXHIytg
— mattson tomlin (@mattsontomlin) February 13, 2026
Following an outpouring of support from fans on social media, Tomlin thanked them for their support and acknowledged that while “it was a challenge to go into a franchise with that much baggage” and emerge with something new, he was glad to be “successful in that for so many of you”.
Set in the Terminator universe established by the juggernaut film franchise, the logline for the show (via Variety) said: “Caught between the future and this past is a soldier sent back in time to change the fate of humanity. She arrives in 1997 to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee, who works to launch a new AI system designed to compete with Skynet’s impending attack on humanity.
“As Malcolm navigates the moral complexities of his creation, he is hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future, which forever alters the fate of his three children.”
The classic sci-fi/action movies began with James Cameron’s original The Terminator in 1984, which introduced the world of Skynet, an artificial intelligence that has initiated a nuclear apocalypse.
Its success led to 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, often regarded as one of the greatest sequels of all time. Also directed by Cameron, that film introduced state-of-the-art CGI to depict the liquid metal of the villainous T-1000.
Four further films have since been released: Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009), Terminator Genisys (2015) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). The later sequels were not as critically acclaimed and explored variants of the franchise’s timeline.
