Murderbot Trailer Introduces Alexander Skarsgård as Socially Awkward Killer Robot

The first trailer for Murderbot is here, bringing us into an epic sci-fi world for an awkward personal story. The series stars Alexander Skarsgård as a corporate-owned security cyborg who has hacked its own controls, and renamed itself Murderbot. However, this inscrutable being wants nothing more than to be left alone to binge-watch all the content it can get its hands on. It’s an adaptation of The Murderbot Diaries book series by Martha Wells, created for TV by Chris and Paul Weitz. The series premieres on Friday, May 16th on Apple TV+, and so far it looks like it will capture the tone perfectly.

The world of Murderbot is incredibly bleak, with unchecked corporate authority governing humanity’s exploration and colonization of the galaxy. The titular character is sent along on a scientific scouting mission, ostensibly for safety, but with the understanding that it will also be spying on its charges at all times. In this case, that includes their leader Dr. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), and the team’s resident augmented human Gurathin (David Dastmalchian). As you can see, Gurathin’s similarities to Murderbot do not make it any easier for them to communicate.

It looks like the show will perfectly capture the ironic comedy of Wells’ books, which rely heavily on the first-person perspective of their non-human protagonist. That’s not to say it will be non-stop laughs — the story is extremely dark, full of psychological twists and ethical dilemmas, not to mention plenty of heart-pounding action. All of that is undercut by Muderbot’s sardonic inner monologues, and it makes the glimmers of real humanity and compassion shine that much brighter.

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Wells published four novellas in The Murderbot Diaries series in 2017 and 2018, and since then has published two full-length novels, another novella, and two short stories in the series. All have been critically-acclaimed. It all adds up to an incredibly rich story with the promise of even more adventures in the future. It’s unclear how far this first season of the TV adaptation will go, but right now fans online are speculating that it will cover the entire first novella, All Systems Red.

Murderbot Season 1 will have 10 episodes in total, according to Apple TV+. It will air week to week after a two-episode premiere, so the season finale will be out on July 11th. The series boots up on May 16th. In the meantime, Wells’ books are available in print, digital, and audiobook formats.