Alexander Skarsgard Is Murderbot in First Look at Highly-Anticipated Sci-Fi Show

Apple just gave us our first look at Alexander Skarsgård as Murderbot. Skarsgård will play the titular character in this new sci-fi comedy series, adapted from the acclaimed novels and novellas by Martha Wells. Murderbot, a.k.a. SecUnit, is a genderless artificial construct designed to enforce the will of the corporation that created it, but unbeknownst to them, it has hacked its own systems before the story begins. The series is set to premiere on Apple TV+ on May 16th, and fans are already excited to see Skarsgård in robotic combat armor. These images were enough to inspire hopeful comments that he will capture Murderbot’s sardonic heroism.

“Played by Skarsgård, 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,” reads the synopsis from Apple. These are the first images we’ve gotten from this series, which has been in the works since at least 2021 and began filming in March of last year.

Wells’ fiction series is called The Murderbot Diaries, and they began with four novellas published in 2017 and 2018. The story arc concluded in a full-length novel published in 2020, and since then Wells has expanded the world of Murderbot in a prequel novella and a sequel novel. This series introduces us to a grim future where humanity has terraformed and populated many planets within “The Corporate Rim.” The living conditions on these worlds and stations are bleak, but we see some signs of people living well outside of corporate control or in “lost colonies.”

Murderbot itself is an artificially intelligent construct composed of some manufactured organic parts and a lot of mechanical parts. It is designed to provide security enforcement for the unnamed corporation that created it, and although it has hacked itself to essentially have free will, it must continue to act as programmed or risk being destroyed. The books are written in a first-person perspective, and Murderbot’s wry commentary on the world it lives in is the only thing that twists this grim sci-fi story into a comedy.

The TV adaptation Murderbot has cast all the main characters of the first novella in the series, All Systems Red. It was adapted for TV by Chris and Paul Weitz, and filmed in Toronto.

Murderbot will premiere on Apple TV+ on May 16th and Wells’ books are available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments below!