The Batman 2 Co-Writer Eyes a Terrifying Horror Take on Terminator
After Terminator Zero was canceled after one season, The Batman 2 co-writer Mattson Tomlin has his sights on a scarier future for Skynet, saying he wants to return to the franchise with a full-on Terminator horror movie that takes the killer machines in a much darker direction.
Well, that was fast. After just one season, the Terminator anime is over. Mattson Tomlin — who co-wrote The Batman 2 — confirmed the end of Terminator Zero and, in the same breath, sketched out a very different way he would return to the franchise: strip it down, make it scary, and do it in live action.
Terminator Zero is done after one season
On Feb 13, 2026, Tomlin announced on X (formerly Twitter) that Terminator Zero had been canceled. He didn’t sugarcoat why.
'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 seasons 2 and 3, but I'm also very happy with how it feels contained as is.'
The series — an anime set after Terminator 2: Judgment Day — ran two tracks: a war-ravaged 2022 and 1997, the year Skynet woke up. Reviews were strong (87% from critics, 79% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes), but the numbers didn’t follow.
What we didn’t get (and what he already wrote)
Tomlin says he had Season 2 fully written and a big chunk of Season 3 outlined. Seasons 2 and 3 would have pushed into the Future War he teases above, and he had a five-season roadmap in mind. He’s hinted he may share the full plan someday in a long thread, but for now Season 1 stands as a contained story by design.
If he comes back to Terminator, he wants to make it scary
In a follow-up reply, Tomlin laid out the version he’d chase if he got another swing — and it’s a pivot from the franchise’s usual big, loud spectacle.
'If I had my say ... my return to the Terminator universe would be with a live action, lower budget full-fledged horror movie.'
Honestly, that tracks. The first film worked because it was lean and relentless. Scaling down could actually make the machines feel dangerous again.
For now, that hypothetical horror reboot is just an idea. Terminator Zero joins the long list of promising genre shows that won the praise and lost the ratings. Happens more than it should.