From Silo to Severance to Foundation, Apple TV+ is cementing itself as the go-to destination for compelling sci-fi stories. While those aforementioned projects are a bit more straightforward in their premises, the upcoming Murderbot, as implied by the cheeky title, veers off into entirely unexpected realms in a fictionalized future. Based on the series of books by Martha Wells, the adaptation stars Alexander Skarsgård as the titular character as he explores a life in which he is tasked by humanity to take on dangerous tasks, despite how his priorities are in an entirely different realm. Murderbot debuts on Apple TV+ on May 16th.
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“I don’t know if Murderbot hates humans. I think it’s just in many ways, it’s indifferent to humans. It just doesn’t quite get humans and is at least initially, not even interested in exploring that, what that is. In the opening scene of the opening episode, you see how Murderbot is normally treated by humans, so you can understand why it has zero interest in interacting with humans,” Skarsgård explained to ComicBook. “It’s a piece of equipment. It’s being treated like a commodity. I didn’t want to lean into hatred towards humanity. I don’t think that was it, either. I think it was just, this is what it is. I am a security unit, and I’m here to protect these idiots from mostly themselves. And that’s what it is. I don’t find them interesting or intriguing at all. So it’s not until Murderbot has hacked, it’s given a module and gained free will and it finds itself surrounded by humans that are completely different — this group of space hippies that it’s been assigned to protect are warm and caring and loving and want to bring Murderbot in and embraces Murderbot in a way that it has never experienced before.”
He added, “That is scary and is, as an actor, a lot of fun to lean into and explore that awkwardness of what that would be like for someone who’s going through a lot. Because, again, of the hacked government module, it’s for the first time able to tap into its humanity and to explore that, but that’s also very scary.”
While it might not have actually been “scary,” the actor admitted that one part of the project gave him a bit of discomfort.
When describing his costume, Skarsgård joked, “It was uncomfortable. In that rubber, it didn’t breathe, so I felt like I was wearing a human-sized, really thick condom. I was hot and sweaty for six months. I really cherish those breaks because there are obviously a bunch of scenes where Murderbot is not in the suit. [There are] a couple of scenes where Murderbot is completely naked or wearing, like, a nice loungy robe or sweatpants, and those days were phenomenal. But that said, other than complaining about it being uncomfortable, I really liked the look of Murderbot because I thought it was a nice contrast to Murderbot’s personality. The fact that it looks badass — it’s a security unit. It can actually hold its own and fight, and I thought that was a fun contrast to the character who’s like, super socially awkward and zero amount of testosterone and just wants to be left alone to watch its space soap operas. I thought that contrast was a lot of fun.”
Murderbot is a sci-fi thriller/comedy about a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients. Murderbot (Skarsgård) 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.
The ensemble cast also includes Noma Dumezweni (Presumed Innocent), David Dastmalchian (Oppenheimer), Sabrina Wu (Joy Ride), Akshay Khanna (Critical Incident), Tattiawna Jones (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Tamara Podemski (Outer Range).
With seven books’ worth of backstory to dive into, the rest of the cast recalled how the source material impacted their contributions to the series.
“Everything we needed was in the script, but why would you not? It is an award-winning series. I had to, I just wanted as much as possible. I have seven books [and] just inhaled them. They’re perfectly sized. They’re very easily digestible and you just need to know the next thing. That’s what I love about them, I needed to read them,” Wu expressed. Dumezweni continued, “I didn’t know about the Murderbot Diaries. I didn’t know Martha Wells had written this series of books. I had the joy of meeting Paul and Chris Weitz in an audition, reading the script, and [thought], ‘This is fabulous.’ Based on something, it just didn’t click at that moment. I’m just realizing, it didn’t click at that moment. And then when I got the gig, I was like, ‘What? It’s based on a book?’ Go in. You have to go in because that’s your source material. If an actor doesn’t go to the book that they’re part of being, you’re losing out on a lot of texture. The art of adaptation that Paul and Chris, for me, was the winning thing. The filling up of a universe, visually — because with the books, it’s always from Murderbot’s point of view, but in the book you do get worlds, which I absolutely love. You have to meet them, so I’m very happy to have met the series.”
Understandably, diving deep into the books came with some unexpected revelations about the project.
“I thought the script, certainly, is a whole entity in and of itself, but I think that script, too, draws heavily from this series of books, so when I got the audition and throughout the audition process, I discovered the books. Sci-fi is not necessarily a genre that I specifically reach for right away, but because of this project, I read all seven books. I read the first, I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll read as much as I can,’ and I got lost. I just went headfirst into the series. I couldn’t not,” Jones reflected. “I was just like, ‘Have to read the other one. Have to read the other one.’ I started talking about it like my new favorite television. ‘Oh, and then this happens.’ No one knew what I was talking about because none of my friends had read the books. ‘But you gotta see — and then this happens and then that happens.’ But I think that the show does such a beautiful job of highlighting some of the things in the book, a lot of the things in the book, I think it does a great job of staying true to a lot of the elements in the book, as much as is possible in two mediums that are so different. I know especially Arada is an amalgamation of a couple of characters in the book, and so with that background of reading the books, and collaborating with Chris and Paul, we were really able to create a unique Arada for the series that still pays homage to Arada and the other characters that she is an amalgamation of.”
Podemski added, “I definitely think of the show as like, All Systems Red expansion pack because the books are quite short and now you get to get a better sense of some of the side characters and, you’ve seen it, there’s some new characters that expand upon the world, but it still keeps the ethos of the series. I’ve read All Systems Red, and I read Artificial Condition, and then I got halfway through Rogue Protocol, but it was while we were on set and I was like, ‘This is too weird.’ I’m hearing Noma and Akshay and all the other actors in my own home and I was like, I need to just put it down for a second, just because I was like, ‘I’m in this now? No.’”
With so much source material to draw from, the Weitz brothers already have an idea of what a follow-up season could explore.
“The plan would be to have a mash-up of the future books because I think that, hopefully, like audiences, we fell in love with the characters, of the team in the first book, and we wouldn’t want to do a season without them,” Chris Weitz confirmed. “So it would be some combination of maybe [books] two, three, and four, I think, would be a second season.”
Murderbot premieres on Apple TV+ on May 16th.
