Apple TV+ has shared the first images of Alexander Skarsgård in its upcoming sci-fi series, “Murderbot.”
Based on Martha Wells’ Hugo and Nebula Award-winning book series “The Murderbot Diaries,” the show follows a self-hacking security construct (Skarsgård) that finds itself simultaneously put off by human emotion and yet drawn to its clients in spite of that. While Skarsgård’s robot wants nothing more than to be left alone to watch its favorite “futuristic soap operas” and try to discern its place in the universe, it is forced to suppress its free will and its desires in order to complete a “dangerous assignment.”
Billed as a “comedic thriller,” “Murderbot” comes from creators Chris and Paul Weitz (“About a Boy”). Skarsgård’s character can be seen both masked and unmasked in the above and below images. The “Northman” and “Succession” star, who won an Outstanding Supporting Actor Emmy in 2017 for his role in “Big Little Lies,” executive produces “Murderbot” alongside the Weitz brothers, Andrew Miano, Keith Levine and David S. Goyer.
In addition to Skarsgård, the cast of “Murderbot” includes David Dastmalchian (“Late Night with the Devil”), Noma Dumezweni (“Presumed Innocent”), Sabrina Wu (“Joy Ride”), Tamara Podemski (“Outer Range”), Akshay Khanna (“Polite Society”) and Tattiawna Jones (“Orphan Black: Echoes”). The show is a Paramount Television Studios production.
The 10-episode first season of “Murderbot” premieres May 16. The season’s first two installments will drop that day, followed by a new episode every Friday after that through July 11.
The series is the latest addition to Apple’s increasingly robust catalogue of sci-fi originals, which already includes “Severance,” “For All Mankind,” “Foundation,” “Silo,” “Invasion,” “Dark Matter” and the Colin Farrell-led “Sugar.”
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