While you’d be forgiven for thinking Apple TV+ is all Severance, all the time—and it kind of is at the moment; the work is mysterious and important, after all!—the streamer has just reminded us that there are even more cool sci-fi projects coming down the pipeline. This includes its adaptation of Martha Wells‘ multiple Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-winning Murderbot Diaries series, and a first look at Murderbot, starring Alexander Skarsgård, is here.
We also have a little bit more to go on, beyond visuals, as to what to expect. Murderbot is described in an Apple TV+ press release as a “comedic thriller,” which matches up with the books; Skarsgård plays the title character, “a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients … Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe.”
Murderbot is created by Chris and Paul Weitz (About a Boy, Mozart in the Jungle), and Skarsgård executive produces in addition to starring. The rest of the cast includes Noma Dumezweni, David Dastmalchian, Sabrina Wu, Akshay Khanna, Tattiawna Jones, and Tamara Podemski. Wells’ seven-part book series, which includes both novellas and full-length novels, kicked off in 2017 with All Systems Red; its most recent entry was 2023’s System Collapse.
And one last piece of valuable intel: Murderbot premieres May 16 with its first two episodes on Apple TV+. It will run 10 episodes total, with a weekly drop after the premiere through July 11. Are you a fan of the books, and will you be tuning in to the series?
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