Image via Shutterstock
Published Feb 13, 2026, 9:56 AM EST
Adam Blevins began working in the entertainment industry in 2022 as a Staff Writer for Agents of Fandom, where he progressed to Senior Editor and interviewed talent from Marvel Studios, House of the Dragon, and Planet of the Apes. He joined Collider as a News Author in April 2024, was promoted to a Senior position in December 2024, and has written over 3,000 articles for the site, including exclusives relating to Avengers: Doomsday, The Penguin, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and more. He primarily writes about the latest box office numbers and the hottest movies and TV shows on streaming, while also covering superhero and sci-fi news. He has completed a set visit for The Chosen and even has several months of experience writing Gaming Features at ScreenRant. You can find him on X, LinkedIn, and Muckrack.
It’s been a strong start to the year for Netflix, which kicked things off with its intensely bingeable new thriller, His & Hers, which stars Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson. The streamer closed out the year in 2025 by wrapping up not only its biggest sci-fi series ever, but one of its most important shows in platform history, Stranger Things. Netflix is the biggest streaming service in the world by the numbers, and fans have come to expect not only high-quality content but also new movies and shows every weekend featuring some of the biggest stars in the world.
Two years ago, Netflix went the animation route to tell its own Terminator story, titled Terminator Zero. James Cameron, creator of the Terminator franchise, has publicly expressed his support for the show, but he was not involved as a writer, director, or producer on the eight-episode series. Mattson Tomlin, who also wrote the script for the next Batman movie with Matt Reeves, wrote and created Terminator Zero, which follows a warrior from a post-apocalyptic future who travels back in time to 1997 to protect an AI scientist from being hunted by an indestructible cyborg. The show earned solid scores of 87% from critics and 79% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes
Despite the mostly strong reception to the first season of Terminator Zero, fans were left in the dark regarding the future of the show. This was made even more frustrating considering the show’s cliffhanger ending, which fans have been waiting to see resolved for two years now. Unfortunately, writer and creator Mattson Tomlin took to his personal X account to confirm that the show has been canceled and would not receive another season.
Why Was ‘Terminator Zero’ Canceled?
Fans have not responded well to the news that Terminator Zero was canceled after only one season. On his social media post that revealed the news, Tomlin said, “The critical and audience reception to it was tremendous, but at the end of the day, not nearly enough people watched it.” To make matters worse, Tomlin confirmed that Netflix offered to let him do a few more episodes to “wrap up the story,” but he declined, saying, “I felt the story I wanted to tell was much longer, and the finale of season one actually left things in a good place. But they didn’t have to offer that. Good partners here.”
Watch the only season of Terminator Zero on Netflix and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of the Terminator franchise.
Showrunner Mattson Tomlin
Directors Masashi Kudo
English (US) ·