Nothing beats sci-fi with a healthy dose of good humor. Apple TV+ is bringing Martha Wells’ award-winning sci-fi series The Murderbot Diaries to life next year in an adaptation starring Alexander Skarsgård.
This ten-episode comedy thriller series follows a self-aware security robot with a unique personality: it’s deadly when necessary but would much rather be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas.
The show centers on a security construct (named “Murderbot” by itself) that has secretly hacked its own programming to gain free will by disabling its governor module.
While assigned to protect a team of scientists, Murderbot must hide its autonomous nature while struggling with its discomfort around human emotions and its preference for binge-watching shows like “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon”, a cheesy in-universe soap opera.
In the trailer, we see Murderbot performing its duties with reluctance, dispatching threats (including what appears to be a giant centipede creature) while internally wishing it could return to its mindless media consumption. Picking Skarsgård to play Murderbot was a fine piece of casting work, a fact many fans of the novel would agree with.
The series also features an impressive supporting cast, including Noma Dumezweni as Dr. Mensah (the team leader), David Dastmalchian as the suspicious Gurathin, Sabrina Wu as Pin Lee, Akshaye Khanna as the overly friendly Ratthi, Tattiawna Jones as the impulsive Arada, and Tamara Podemski as the scientist Bharadwaj.
Behind the scenes, filmmaker brothers Chris and Paul Weitz (known for American Pie, About a Boy, and Mozart in the Jungle) serve as executive producers alongside Skarsgård.
What will make Murderbot appealing to audiences is its unique approach to the robot protagonist. Unlike the existential threats often portrayed in the genre, Murderbot is depicted as somewhat antisocial but fundamentally non-threatening.
A construct that understands humanity enough to be annoyed by it but still feels drawn to protect vulnerable clients. The series employs first-person narration to share Murderbot’s internal perspective and observations about human behavior, which is an element from the books that they kept in the show.
There’s also an intriguing backstory involving some kind of murder incident in Murderbot’s past that led to a partial memory wipe, which gives the story more depth. The first season adapts Wells’ original novella All Systems Red, which won both Hugo and Nebula awards.
Murderbot will premiere on May 16, with two episodes, followed by weekly releases until the finale on July 11. After the emotional wringer that was Severance Season 2 (a review about that is coming soon), a slice of comedic relief is perfect timing for most.
