One of Apple’s next big sci-fi shows has a premiere date. The company announced that its adaptation of Murderbot, based on the novels by Martha Wells, will debut on Apple TV Plus with two episodes on May 16th. The season finale will stream on July 11th.
The show will star Alexander Skarsgård in the titular lead role, a “self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients.” According to the official tagline, “Murderbot 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.”
In addition to the date, Apple also revealed the first images of Skarsgård as the bot, both with a helmet on and without:
The comedy series is being helmed by brothers Chris and Paul Weitz (who previously codirected About a Boy and worked together on the original American Pie), with David S. Goyer, the former showrunner on Apple’s ambitious adaptation of Foundation, serving as an executive producer. The rest of the cast includes Noma Dumezweni, David Dastmalchian, Sabrina Wu, Akshay Khanna, Tattiawna Jones, and Tamara Podemski.
Of course, Murderbot is just part of a growing list of science fiction on Apple TV Plus, which also includes recently wrapped shows like Silo, as well as Severance, which is in the midst of its second season. Other upcoming adaptations include a series based on William Gibson’s cyberpunk classic Neuromancer.