Apple TV’s Adaptation of Cyberpunk’s Most Iconic Story Gets First Look Teaser (& Huge Update)

Apple TV+ is adapting the definitive novel of the Cyberpunk genre, Neuromancer, into a 10-episode series, and it’s officially in production. News of the series has been trickling out for months now, but on Tuesday, Apple TV+ announced that work is truly underway. Previous reports indicated that the series began filming in January or even December, so it’s unclear what the cast and crew were working on in advance. The show is based on William Gibson’s iconic 1984 novel of the same name, and created for TV by Dark Winds showrunner Graham Roland. Apple has not announced a release date for the series yet.

Neuromancer stars Callum Turner as Case, an expert hacker who is damaged in every sense of the word before he stumbles into the biggest job of his life. Briana Middleton plays the “razor-girl” assassin Molly — arguably the most iconic character from the story — while Mark Strong plays their employer, Armitage. The story is set in a high-tech dystopian future where corporations wield more power than governments, and individuals are left scrambling for a semblance of security.

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The novel is known for coining many of the most important terms and slang in cyberpunk, and in the sci-fi genre as a whole. For example, Case’s specialized skills allow him to navigate a virtual reality dataspace known as “the matrix,” and the novel was the first recorded user of the term “cyberspace.” It was one of the first stories to use concepts like a biological port to interface with computers, and biological microchips to augment the human body.

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In some ways, this may make the long-awaited adaptation all the more challenging. While Neuromancer has never been adapted into a TV show or movie before, it has influenced countless creators in other mediums, as cyberpunk fans are well aware. However, even for viewers who aren’t aware of the significance of this novel in pioneering the genre, Neuromancer is compelling enough on its own to hold their attention. Hopefully, the series can capture that spirit.

For the long-time fans keeping up with this project, Tuesday’s announcement may be a bit puzzling. Back in November, Turner told Interview Magazine that he was going to Japan to begin filming Neuromancer in December. In March, Emma Laird told Collider that she had been filming Neuromancer in Japan in January, and she characterized it as an extended job. We can only speculate, but it’s possible that December and January were spent entirely on the parts of the story that take place in Tokyo, while the rest of the series is now in production.

Neuromancer is in production now, but there’s no word yet on when we might get to see it. In the meantime, Gibson’s novel is available in print, digital, and audiobook formats.