Murderbot Is Getting an Apple TV+ Series, and Some Fans Have Mixed Feelings

At the end of 2023, Apple announced it had acquired the TV adaptation rights to The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells’s beloved science fiction series. The series is to be headed by brothers Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz and will star Alexander Skarsgård as Murderbot, with a first season of 10 episodes. Release date pending.

My immediate reaction to this announcement was somewhere around “Huh” and “Not what I expected” and “How will this work?” And I’m not the only fan of the books who has questions. So what should we expect from this adaptation?

Tor Books

A Spoiler-Free Introduction to The Murderbot Diaries

For anyone unfamiliar with The Murderbot Diaries, it’s an award-winning science fiction series comprising six novellas and one full-length novel, plus s several short stories. Wells paints a dystopian future where corporations are responsible for planet colonization and governance. One such corporation (we’re never given its name—it’s just called “the company”) rents out part-human, part-robot “constructs,” one of which is a Security Unit that secretly calls itself Murderbot for reasons explained in the first book. Murderbot has disconnected itself from the corporate network, and as the Apple press release describes, “all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe.”

“I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are,” Murderbot laments in Network Effect. It says it doesn’t like humans, but thanks to the first-person viewpoint, which Wells uses to maximum effect, we know that’s not true. Over time, it secretly becomes attached to the humans it’s contracted to protect.

A lot of readers have connected some of Murderbot’s character traits with neurodivergence. During a 2020 Reddit AMA, a user asked Wells, “If it was an intentional decision to have Murderbot and autism overlap, what did you study to better represent neurodiversity on the page?” Wells replied, “Those aspects of the character were based on my own experience. I’m not neurotypical, and I’ve been affected by depression and anxiety all my life.”

Another Reddit user, who said they have PTSD from military service, remarked that some of Murderbot’s coping mechanisms were similar to theirs. Wells said, “I was using my own experiences in dealing with emotional abuse, and the chronic anxiety and depression that it caused. I think the coping mechanism for PTSD must be similar.”

Needless to say, Murderbot is a deeply personal, very human character.

Will an Adaptation Work?

I love Murderbot and have always wanted a TV adaptation. But I’ve also been unsure of how it would work. The best part of the series is Murderbot’s witty inner thoughts, which are what makes the character so interesting. How will that translate to the screen? Voiceover? That’s usually cringy. Office-style character aside? Even worse. Facial expressions? Well, Murderbot usually hides inside its armor. I’m not saying it’s impossible to convey all of the character’s inner goodness, but I am saying it will be difficult.

Apple’s Oscar-nominated showrunners have a variety of writing credits, including some within speculative fiction. Chris Weitz cowrote Rogue One, which was a huge hit for Disney and well received by Star Wars fans. He also wrote and directed the 2007 movie adaptation of The Golden Compass, which was received poorly. Apparently, that film is far from his original vision—he has gone on record as saying New Line cut its dark undertones and religious themes against his will. So that film isn’t indicative of how he would approach an adaptation.

In a recent interview with Locus magazine, Wells said, “I really do trust the team … I understand it has to be different because you’re taking a very internal first-person narrative and having to make it three-dimensional and visual. There’s stuff that Murderbot can tell the reader in prose, that it can’t say out loud, but we’re going to have to show somehow instead.”

I’m glad she feels like the production is in good hands. But how they’re going to convey all the best parts of The Murderbot Diaries remains unclear, and I can’t confidently predict whether it will be good just by looking at the Weitz brothers’ past body of work.

Casting Questions

Alexander Skarsgård is an award-winning actor best known for his time on True Blood as Eric Northman. As his bio on Rotten Tomatoes puts it, he “exudes a mysterious magnetism that makes him a natural to play dark, often disturbed characters.”

Skarsgård’s casting as Murderbot has been met with skepticism by some fans. For one thing, the character is described in the books as lacking any gender or sexual characteristics. At one point in the second book, Artificial Condition, Murderbot must change its appearance to disguise itself. In response to the suggestion that adding sexual parts would better sell the disguise, it says, “That was absolutely not an option. I didn’t have any parts related to sex, and I liked it that way.”

For more insight into these and other concerns, I reached out to former Twin Cities Geek editor Linnea Peterson, who wrote a fabulous piece about autistic representation in media (including Murderbot) and how seeing themself represented in fictional characters isn’t always a positive experience.

Alexander Skarsgård. Gage Skidmore via Flickr

“Casting someone who presents as a cis man is the least interesting gender choice the showrunners could have made,” Linnea said. Others have expressed similar thoughts: Rebecca Oliver Kaplan wrote for the Mary Sue that “several agender and nonbinary performers would have been more interesting and fitting casting choices for the series, including the fan-favorite choice for Murderbot, nonbinary Puerto Rican actor Vico Ortiz.” Linnea also noted there aren’t many white characters in The Murderbot Diaries, and as such, “Casting a white person for the titular role feels really inappropriate.”

And should Murderbot be played by someone who’s autistic? That may be more complicated. Though the character has traits and characteristics that many readers with autism relate to, it doesn’t have an in-universe autism diagnosis, and Linnea emphasized that actors shouldn’t be barred from neurodivergent roles just because they don’t have a public diagnosis, either. Autistic actors—and those who have mental health conditions like the ones Wells mentioned in her AMA—may have reasons for wanting to keep their diagnoses private, and audiences should respect their wishes. On the other hand, actors and directors who aren’t familiar with autism may rely on harmful stereotypes to portray their character and give poor representation, as infamously happened with Sia’s 2021 film Music.

“I hope there are ways to evaluate representation that don’t boil down to ‘If you belong to this community, your representation is good; if you don’t, your representation is bad,’” Linnea said. “I think the most problematic part of Skarsgård’s casting is his race, followed by his gender. While I wish someone openly neurodivergent had been cast for the role, I think that’s less important.” What’s more important for autistic representation, they said, is for more attention to be given to openly autistic art.

Wait and See

Ultimately, some fans are excited to see Murderbot brought to the screen, regardless of casting. For others, Skarsgård’s casting means they won’t be watching. Others may wait to hear more about the production and other cast choices before deciding.

Are you feeling excited? Disappointed? Or do you have a “wait and see” mindset? Let us know what you think in the comments.