RoboCop Fans Question Doing A Prequel Without RoboCop In It

Yesterday fans got the news that RoboCop would be returning in a new series, but with a big catch. Turns out the series will be a prequel to the classic film, and will actually not feature RoboCop at all. Instead, it will focus on the original film’s villain Dick Jones, originally played by Ronny Cox, and will give fans some context on how he became the villain we see in the original film. The project is being developed by original RoboCop co-writer Ed Neumeier and MGM, and while fans were stoked to see RoboCop back in the news, they weren’t thrilled with the fact that he won’t actually be a part of this new series, and they took their reactions to social media. We’ve collected some of the best reactions starting on the next slide, but first some context.

Neumeier spoke about the project in an interview with Moviehole, and while he didn’t come up with the original idea, he knew he wanted to work on it the second he heard it.

“I’m working at MGM on it. It has all the cool stuff about RoboCop except no RoboCop,” Neumeier said. “I’m working with these two writers, Dave Parkin and Rob Gibbs, who bought this idea to a TV producer friend of mine, who then brought it to me. The first time I heard it I knew it was a cool idea because I could see a lot of things you could do with it. It’s such an interesting character.”

We’ll see who Jones was before he became the corporate predator he is in the original film. “So we’ve been talking about it and I think we have an interesting story. It’s fun to work with a younger version of the Dick Jones we meet in RoboCop,” Neumeier said. “He’s an actualized corporate predator [in the movie] but nobody necessarily starts out being the bad guy. So it’s going to be about the evolution of Richard Jones to Dick Jones, the story of OCP and how the world moves into the future, how the corporate world behaves.”

The project isn’t greenlit yet, but Neumeier has his fingers crossed.

“With any luck, if MGM is willing, if we can find the partners, if we can get this pilot made, if we can convince a bunch of people – it’s amazing how many people you have to convince – if that all works out maybe we’ll get a TV show up,” Neumeier said.

Hit the next slide to see what fans are saying about the prequel series, and let us know what you think in the comments!

Cop

Many are noting that it isn’t really RoboCop without the Robo.

“R̶o̶b̶o̶Cop”

Why RoboCop?

Many are raising the point of why call it RoboCop if it doesn’t have him in there, other than the obvious reason, which is to tie it to popular IP.

“yea but why robocop then? just make a good show about a city that turned to chaos. unless u just want robocop slightly tied to it so people pay attention to it and ignor that it is dogshit.”

Don’t Have Faith

Some feel there’s potential here, but they don’t exactly have faith in TV getting it right.

“There’s potential here and anyone saying “well what would it be about?” wasn’t paying attention to the original movie. At the same time, I 100% don’t have faith in prestige tv to make a RoboCop show a corporate satire in this day and age”

Boring

You totally get why some are saying this is just NormalCop instead of RoboCop, and it’s hard to argue that point.

“Instead of RoboCop we get NormalCop? Kinda boring. Also the original movie already shown RoboCop’s backstory so I don’t get the point of this. Whatever.”

Awful News

Some don’t know what to make of it, but others are very much against the news.

“awful news! ?
RoboCop is one of the best (anti-capitalist, & narratively perfect)) films ever made IMHO…
RoboCop 2 wasn’t bad, & even 3 was bearable/at least interesting. (Though neither was warranted, frankly.)
But beyond that…. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!! ?”

Before Superman

Some are comparing this idea to building a story around the Kents before Kal-El landed on Earth.

“This “RoboCop prequel with no RoboCop” sounds like a worse idea than “developing” a series about the Kents BEFORE that alien baby landed on their property.

Prior to Clark Kent becoming part of the family, they were just ordinary farmers! Nothing to see there, no need to exploit!”

90%

Others are saying this prequel just misses the point of the original RoboCop.

“Bruh. 90% of the point of Robocop is to watch the big, shiny law-borg kick ass. I don’t give a shit about what happened before- it can be told via implication and exposition in a Robocop film or series.”

The Promo

Someone came up with the show’s promo, and it’s pretty accurate.

“I can see the promo now:
Before there was Robocop, there was…

Regular Cop

All Man
No Machine
All Cop”