The Zeta Project

The Zeta Project is an American science fiction animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation, which first aired on Kids' WB in January 2001. It is the sixth series of the DC Animated Universe, and a spin-off series based on the character Zeta from the Batman Beyond episode of the same name. The show was created by Robert Goodman.

The story's main character, Infiltration Unit Zeta, is a humanoid robot (synthoid) designed to carry out covert assassinations on behalf of the National Security Agency. When Zeta discovers that one of his targets is innocent, he experiences an existential crisis about goodness and the value of life; following this epiphany, Zeta finds he can no longer kill. He refuses to continue working as an infiltration unit and abandons his mission, going rogue. As he tries to find his creator, Dr. Selig, Zeta is pursued by a team of NSA agents led by Agent Bennet and aided by a 15-year-old runaway, Rosalie "Ro" Rowan.

The series was cancelled after two seasons.

Overview
The Zeta Project is inspired by Frankenstein, Blade Runner, and The Fugitive, and follows Zeta and Ro as they attempt to prove he is non-violent, while the NSA agents pursuing him believe the terrorists he was investigating before going rogue have reprogrammed him for an unknown purpose. To prove his innocence, Zeta and Ro search for his creator, the elusive Dr. Selig.

A spin-off of Batman Beyond, Goodman initially pitched the show with plans to be darker than the original show. However, when the pitch went to Kids' WB, the network wanted shows that would skew to a younger demographic, and The Zeta Project was ultimately picked up with the thought process "It's a robot, and it's a teenage girl. How much fun can that be?" The show staff promised that most of the locations Zeta would encounter would not be as dark, gothic, and oppressive as Batman Beyond's Gotham City. As a result of this and other constraints, Goodman's original vision for the show's messages on dark government, misuse of technology, and various social and political issues became more difficult to execute.

Despite the lighter tone adopted by the final product, Kids' WB felt The Zeta Project was too dark throughout its run, and almost canceled the show entirely following the September 11th attacks due to its plotlines involving terrorism and commentary on the NSA. Ultimately, the show continued for one more season before Goodman left, believing that network demands were pushing the show away from his creative vision.

Infiltration Unit Zeta
Zeta is a synthoid who was originally designed to gather information and kill select targets for the NSA. However, after realizing that one of his targets was actually innocent, he refused to kill anymore and went on the run. Ever since, Zeta's creators have been pursuing him, convinced that he was reprogrammed by terrorists. Zeta hopes that his creator, Dr. Selig, can prove his innocence, and so is searching for him. He meets Rosalie after saving her from a street gang, and in return she helps him escape from the agents pursuing him. Though Zeta no longer possesses most weapons he was originally equipped with, his arms are equipped with saw blades and cutting lasers; he also possesses various non-lethal tools, such as welding lasers, a computer interface, and an unlimited credit card. He has a high-endurance metal frame and the ability to project a hologram around himself and alter his voice. Additionally, he is faster than a human, can perceive wavelengths outside human perception, and is self-repairing to a limited degree.

Rosalie "Ro" Rowan
Rosalie Rowan is a 15-year-old girl who grew up in foster care in Hillsburg with Sheriff Morgan and his family before being assigned to a state-run home on Gaines Street. The only thing she knows about her family is vague memories of an older brother, who she was separated from years ago by the foster care system. She ran away from the state system at fifteen years old and joined a gang to have a home. But when she refused to take part in robbing a bank to prove herself to the leader, she left the gang. As she and Zeta search for his creator, Ro embarks on her own journey as she searches for a "family" to belong to. She serves as Zeta's guide to "passing" among humans, and teaches him lessons about being human. Additionally, she is a source of comedy in the series, contrasting with Zeta's stoic nature. She is visually inspired by Priss from Blade Runner.

Special Agent James Bennet
Agent Bennet is the leader of the NSA team sent to capture Zeta and bring him back alive, believing him to be working with the terrorist organization Brother's Day. Despite his supposed professionalism, he is shown disobeying orders when it suits him and abusing his authority. Despite overhearing a conversation between Dr. Selig and Zeta, in which Selig admits he implanted a chip inside Zeta that gave him a conscience, it is unknown if he is willing to cease being his enemy. Bennet is inspired by Lt. Philip Gerard from The Fugitive.

Dr. Eli Selig
Doctor Eli Selig is Zeta's creator and the former head of the government's Infiltration Unit Program, who knows Zeta's abilities and limitations better than anyone else. Since building Zeta, he has moved on to another government project—one more confidential than his past work. In the present, Selig has become a phantom—appearing where and when his work demands and occasionally aiding other scientists or lecturing at conferences. However, because his security is so sensitive, his appearances are never announced until the last minute.

Agent Orin West and Marcia Lee
Formerly Scout Unit Four, partner NSA Agent Orin West and Marcia Lee fail to capture Zeta at the Wood Valley Maryland hoverbus station and are assigned to work for Agent Bennet as punishment, dedicating themselves to capturing Zeta.

West is clumsy and overeager, while Lee is more controlled and by-the-book and keeps him in check. Lee has her doubts about Zeta's guilt and is willing to believe he might be peaceful, which sometimes putting her at odds with Bennet. Lee eventually leaves Bennet's team and is replaced by Agent Rush

West shares a last name with and resembles Wally West, who is also voiced by Rosenbaum. However, showrunner Bob Goodman has stated this was coincidental.

Bucky Buenaventura
Bucky Buenaventura is a 12-year-old boy and child prodigy, who was emancipated by his parents and lives in the Sorben Institute, an academic think tank. He is skilled at hacking and loves hacking into high-security corporate computers and exposing government secrets to show that he is capable of it. Bucky travels around freely and shows interest in Zeta and Ro as he keeps an eye on them.

Infiltration Unit 7
IU7 is the next generation of Infiltration Unit after Zeta, which Agent Bennet unleashes to capture its predecessor. Like him, it is a synthoid with mimicry skills and wields a large arsenal of weapons, but its metal frame is larger, powerful, and heavily armed. Because of the single-mindedness of IU7's programming, Zeta and Ro usually find ways to outsmart it.

Broadcast history

 * United States
 * Kids' WB (2001–2002)
 * Canada
 * YTV (2001–2008)
 * Teletoon (2004–2009)
 * United Kingdom
 * Cartoon Network (2001–2008)
 * Boomerang (2008)
 * Sky1 (2001–2002)


 * Australia
 * Cartoon Network (2001–2008)
 * Nine Network (2001–2003)
 * France
 * Cartoon Network (2001–2003)
 * Brazil
 * Cartoon Network (2001–2007)
 * SBT (2003–2015; 2021–present)
 * Tooncast (2021–present)
 * Chile
 * Chilevision (2010–2018)
 * Boomerang (2007–2009)
 * Canal 13 (2005–2013)
 * Venezuela
 * Venevisión (2005–2008)
 * Boomerang (2007–2009)


 * Latin America
 * Boomerang (2007–2009)
 * Cartoon Network (2001–2007)
 * Tooncast (2021–present)
 * Middle East
 * MBC 3 (2007–2010)
 * New Zealand
 * TVNZ 2 (2003–2009)
 * Russia
 * STS (2002–2003)
 * Mexico
 * Canal 5 (2008–2010)
 * Las Estrellas (2004–2006)
 * Republic of Ireland
 * RTÉ Two (2001–2002)

Cancellation and future
Following the September 11th attacks, Kids' WB considered canceling The Zeta Project, but Bob Goodman convinced them he could keep the show running without even mentioning terrorists. However, Kids' WB demanded that if the show were to be picked up for a third season, this season needed to end on a cliffhanger that appeared to kill Zee's creator, Dr. Selig. Eventually, Kids' WB! told Goodman that the finale would be the end of Zeta's search for Selig, and that a third season would reveal that Ro was also a robot, and follow the "Scooby-Doo", adventure of the week, formula. Tired of network demands getting in the way of his vision, Goodman ultimately quit the show. Interviews were held to replace him as show runner, but enthusiasm for the show lowered following his exit.

In December 2004, John Schneider revealed he was working on a filmed version of the show with series creator Bob Goodman. Goodman later expanded, saying Warner Bros. Television Studios was interested in adapting the show in an hour long format. As producers, Schneider and Goodman developed a live action series that took liberties with the Zeta concept to fit the sensibilities of the network at the time, which included lessening similarities to The Fugitive, since the recent reboot underperformed expectations. The show would have featured Ro working in the FBI's cyber crimes unit, with Zee having replaced her partner in the pilot. The show would have had them solving cases week to week while hunting down Zeta's creator and Ro's family.

Over the years, Bob Goodman has stated a desire to finish the series' story, in either comic form or long-form straight-to-DVD format. Over the years, he has hinted at many plot points for unproduced seasons, including:
 * The hand seen in the cliffhanger being revealed to belong to Andrea Donoso, Selig's synthoid assistant and bodyguard,
 * Selig having a new plan with important work for Zeta,
 * Ro's search for her family, focusing on her mother,
 * Plans for an Infiltration Unit 8,
 * An episode referencing the fan theory that Agent West was a descendant of Wally West by temporarily giving him super-speed.

Influence
Despite the show's relative obscurity, The Zeta Project has made its way into many other DC projects. Early synthoid models resembling Zeta's original design, dubbed Z-8s, appear in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. In 2013, Zeta appeared in Batman Beyond Unlimited #16 as part of the new Terrific Trio, alongside Plastic Man and Batman Beyond villain Earth Mover. The seventh and eighth seasons of Arrow featured a 2040s set future where a company named Galaxy One unleashed robot soldiers named Zeta. In 2021, Young Justice mentioned The Zeta Project in the episode "Needful". The AI in 2022's Batman Unburied was named Zeta, after The Zeta Project.

Music
As with other DCAU shows before it, The Zeta Project was scored by Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuistion, Kristopher Carter, and supervising composer Shirley Walker. Working concurrently with the final season of Batman Beyond, for Zeta's first season, the Walker team worked to compose original music for each episode that blended the sound of a live orchestra composed of musicians hired from American Federation of Musicians Local 47, with more contemporary electronic elements the team recorded in their own studio.

According to McCuistion, "Each episode was a different take, musically, and there were some threads of course, but I remember several of them having different musical environments, and that was really interesting creatively. [...] it certainly didn't share any of the flavor of Batman Beyond in terms of music, I don't think. It was very futuristic and very fun, but yeah, it didn't have that sort of gritty, underworld cultural thing going on."

The Zeta Project was the final show the Dynamic Music Partners (Ritmanis, McCuistion, Carter) had a live orchestra on, and played a hand in the Dynamic Music Partner's being hired to score Treyarch's Spider-Man

Emmy For Your Consideration CD Track Listing

 * Main Title 1:01
 * Making Contact 2:36
 * His Maker's Name 1:05
 * Ro & Zee Meet Again 1:09
 * Desperate Escape 1:31
 * Bucky's Parent Woes 1:26
 * Zeta Escapes 1:35
 * Sorben Institute 0:51
 * Hide and Seek 1:09
 * West Gets Closer 1:42
 * Perryville 0:24
 * System Down 1:18
 * Kid Genius? 0:49
 * Nice Guy 0:57
 * Sweet Revenge 0:56

Home video
First announced at Warner Home Video's annual Home Theater Forum chat in September 2008, WHV (via DC Comics and Warner Bros. Family Entertainment) released the first season of The Zeta Project as a 2-DVD set for Region 1 on March 17, 2009. The bonus material for the set was handled by Retrofit Films, who reached out to fans of the series to help field interview questions for the cast and crew. While the released disc featured a 16-minute documentary featurette, titled "The Making of Zeta", about the show's origin with commentary from the voice cast and production staff, the original press release stated the set would include a since unreleased 15–20 minute featurette titled "Finding Freedom", a roundtable discussion, in which the cast speculates on various theories of where the show would have gone while producer/show runner Robert Goodman and his team give the fans the definitive answers.

The second season was initially reported to be on the way as early as December 2008. The following month, series creator Bob Goodman teased that bonus features for the season 2 set were filmed at the same time of the season 1 features, and later expanded that the season was slated to release in mid-2009 with a panel discussion featurette with Julie Nathanson, Liz Holzman, Joe Kuhr and himself that covered behind-the-scenes anecdotes. However, sales for season one did not meet Warner Home Video's expectations, resulting in the cancellation of the Season 2 release.

Alongside a re-printing of Season 1, Season 2 was finally announced for release by Warner Archive in February 2017 and arrived March 14, 2017. Attempts to locate the originally planned bonus features were unsuccessful, and they remain lost. To promote the release, Warner Archive held the "Warner Archive Collection's Kids' WB Flashback" panel at WonderCon Anaheim, featuring Diedrich Bader, Julie Nathanson, and Bob Goodman, as well as Phil LaMarr, who was representing WAC's recent Static Shock DVD releases.

Video game
Zeta Quest 3D was launched May 24, 2001. Advertised as a unique multi-environment, multi-level "walk-through" online video game, "Zeta Quest 3D", let players assume the identity of Zeta, staying one step ahead of the NSA, while trying to clear his name. The game was built for the short lived CyberWorld QBORGs Browser System. According to Bob Goodman, he and Joe Kuhr contributed to vetting the writing process of the game. Not much is known about the plot, but many of the games original files are archived online and include a room named "IU8 Lab", suggesting the existence of an Infiltration Unit 8, as well as sprites of doctors seen in the episode "Absolute Zero".