Murderbot (TV series)

Murderbot
Genre
Created by
Based onThe Murderbot Diaries
by Martha Wells
Starring
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes9
Production
Executive producers
  • Chris Weitz
  • Paul Weitz
  • Alexander Skarsgård
  • Andrew Miano
  • David S. Goyer
  • Keith Levine
Running time22–29 minutes
Production companies
Original release
NetworkApple TV+
ReleaseMay 16, 2025 (2025-05-16) –
present

Murderbot is an American science fiction action comedy television series created by Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz for Apple TV+. It is based on All Systems Red, the first book of the series The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, who serves as a consulting producer. The series stars Alexander Skarsgård as the titular character. It premiered on May 16, 2025.

Premise

A media-obsessed private security cyborg, calling itself Murderbot, must hide its newly acquired autonomy, while completing dangerous assignments and being simultaneously drawn to humans and appalled at their weakness.[1]

Cast and characters

Main

Recurring

Cast of show-within-a-show The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon
  • John Cho as Eknie Jef Chem (playing Captain Hossein)
  • Clark Gregg as Arletty (playing Lieutenant Kulleruu)
  • Jack McBrayer as Breillor MocJac (playing Navigation Officer Hordööp-Sklanch)
  • DeWanda Wise as Pordron Bretney III Roche (playing Nav Bot 337 Alt 66)

Guest

  • Anna Konkle as Leebeebee, a member of another survey team on the planet. The character does not appear in the novella.
  • Amanda Brugel as Rita / GrayCris Blue
  • David Reale as GrayCris Yellow

Episodes

No.Title [2]Directed byWritten by [3]Original release date [4]
1"FreeCommerce"Paul WeitzTeleplay by : Paul Weitz & Chris WeitzMay 16, 2025 (2025-05-16)
A private security cyborg, annoyed by humans, hacks the governing module that forces it to obey their commands. Hiding its new autonomy to avoid being destroyed, the SecUnit renames itself Murderbot on a whim. A team of researchers is compelled to accept Murderbot on their mission to meet their insurance requirements, but are hesitant to do so as it seems akin to slavery. On the planet, Murderbot enjoys watching reruns of television, especially a soap opera The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. Two researchers come under attack from a massive centipede-like creature, but are saved by Murderbot. Bharadwaj is seriously injured, and Arada goes into shock. While bringing them back to the habitat, Murderbot lowers its mask to reveal a human face, and comforts Arada. After returning to the habitat, the augmented human Gurathin is suspicious of this behavior, as well as other clues that Murderbot is not acting as a SecUnit should. The team realizes there are unexplained gaps in the planetary maps and data provided to them, and Murderbot reassures the crew it has no knowledge of why.
2"Eye Contact"Chris WeitzChris Weitz & Paul WeitzMay 16, 2025 (2025-05-16)
Suspicious of Murderbot, Gurathin convinces Mensah not to bring the SecUnit along when she investigates a distant, unmapped location. Mensah becomes disoriented while out in the field, as another of the same species of creatures that attacked the others bears down on her. It moves past her however, drawn to a specific spot full of dead creatures, killed by ancient alien remnants. Back at the habitat, Murderbot, uncomfortable with conversation and eye contact, is asked by Gurathin to explain if it is acting outside the boundaries of its programming. Gurathin becomes concerned that it has some deleted memories.
3"Risk Assessment"Toa FraserPaul Weitz & Chris WeitzMay 23, 2025 (2025-05-23)
Looking for answers about the missing maps and the ancient, alien technology the crew attempt to call the other research crew on the opposite side of the planet, but get no response. Out of concern for them they decide to go investigate. Gurathin and Bharadwaj remain behind while the rest of the crew travels. At the other habitat, Murderbot distributes weapons and takes the lead into the investigation. Murderbot walks in alone, and finds its inhabitants dead and other SecUnits destroyed. It lies to its crew and says that everything is fine. Murderbot is attacked by another SecUnit and defeats it, before another SecUnit comes up behind it.
4"Escape Velocity Protocol"Toa FraserChris Weitz & Paul WeitzMay 30, 2025 (2025-05-30)
Murderbot discovers itself helpless and hallucinating about Sanctuary Moon while being dragged by a hostile SecUnit. After a fight, the hostile SecUnit installs a combat override module into Murderbot. Mensah comes to rescue it, and the other members of the team come to rescue Mensah. Although the hostile SecUnit is defeated by the crew using the hopper as a weapon, Murderbot tells the crew that it has been subverted by the combat override module, and will kill them unless they kill it first. When they fail to act, Murderbot takes a gun from Mensah and shoots itself.
5"Rogue War Tracker Infinite"Paul WeitzPaul Weitz & Chris WeitzJune 6, 2025 (2025-06-06)
Mensah decides to take Murderbot back to their habitat, when Leebeebee, a surviving member of the DeltFall expedition appears. She confirms that her teammates were killed by seemingly rogue SecUnits. The Preservation team brings her back to their base camp, where they repair and reboot Murderbot. Gurathin, who is still suspicious of the SecUnit, discovers that it has hacked its governor module even before they contracted it, but Mensah declares to still trust Murderbot because of its actions to protect the team. After all that happened, they conclude that there must be an unknown hostile third party on the planet. They agree to activate the emergency beacon, which fails. When Mensah and Murderbot fly to the beacon in order to start it manually, it explodes.
6"Command Feed"Aurora GuerreroChris Weitz & Paul WeitzJune 13, 2025 (2025-06-13)
Murderbot and Mensah survived the explosion, but the hopper is damaged, and SecUnit deleted the repair manual in order to make space for a season of Sanctuary Moon. When Mensah is having a panic attack, Murderbot calms her down by showing her an episode of the show. They manage to repair the hopper using neural fibers from Murderbot's spinal cord. Meanwhile at the habitat, Leebeebee tries to get more information about the results of the Preservation survey. When Gurathin refuses to show her the data, she produces a gun, shoots him in the knee, and threatens rest of the team. She admits that she is not a member of DeltFall, but of the third party. Murderbot returns and kills Leebeebee immediately, which leaves the Preservation team in shock. While it gets repaired, Murderbot muses that the others had assumed that it was becoming like them, and that it actually felt good to execute Leebeebee.
7"Complementary Species"Roseanne LiangPaul Weitz & Chris WeitzJune 20, 2025 (2025-06-20)
In a flashback, it is revealed that Gurathin used to be a spy working for the Corporation Rim and was suicidal, before he met Mensah. Meanwhile, the PresAux team prepares to evacuate the habitat, before the hostile third party arrives. Murderbot observes that Gurathin's body temperature is rising. They still take the hopper and try to hide. While the team disusses their situation, two of the centipede-like creatures appear and mate, leaving their eggs attached to the hopper. Shortly after that, a SecUnit of superior make attacks. The team unavailingly tries to help Murderbot fighting the aggressor. But when it accidentally destroys some of the alien eggs, the female returns, bites the SecUnit's head off, collects the remaining egg sacks, and disappears. Gurathin collapses due to his infected wound. Against Murderbot's advice, Mensah orders to take him back to the medical bay of the habitat.
8"Foreign Object"Aurora GuerreroChris Weitz & Paul WeitzJune 27, 2025 (2025-06-27)
Murderbot accompanies the PresAux team back to the habitat. The recording of the security cameras shows that in their absence, more superior SecUnits and a representative of the hostile third party—now identified as GrayCris—visited the habitat and left an invitation to meet at a rendezvous point to negotiate terms for their survival. After a security check, the PresAux team take Gurathin to the medical bay. While Bharadwaj performs surgery on Gurathin's leg, Murderbot plugs into his data port to turn off his sense of pain. The connection allows Gurathin to find out what it calls itself and that the SecUnit was involved in the deaths of 57 clients, which Gurathin reveals to the group and condemns Murderbot for. Murderbot admits it's not sure if it killed the clients or not and agrees with Gurathin's assessment that it could be defective and dangerous, then it leaves the group to go out on its own. The PresAux team concludes that GrayCris is illegally after the alien remnants and that they will liquidate them once they find out their location. After mulling whether to abandon or betray its clients, Murderbot comes back and announces that it has a plan.
9"All Systems Red"Roseanne LiangPaul Weitz & Chris WeitzJuly 4, 2025 (2025-07-04)
Murderbot puts a dangerous plan into motion, pretending to betray the PresAux team in order leave the planet. While the team expresses doubts and tension rises, Murderbot keeps the true plan hidden: to have Gurathin hack into GrayCris’s HubSystem using a drone as a transponder and launch their emergency beacon. The ruse includes offering to help GrayCris capture the Preservation team in exchange for being listed as destroyed inventory. Murderbot stalls the enemy using awkward small talk and quotes from Sanctuary Moon, while the PresAux team manages the remote connection. As the plan begins to succeed, GrayCris prepares to torture Murderbot for the information they seek. Mensah intervenes and is caught in the crossfire. In the end, Murderbot shields her from the beacon’s launch blast, which kills the GrayCris team, nearly sacrificing itself. Before Murderbot's systems fail, it quietly admits to itself that these humans have become its clients not just by contract, but by choice.
10"The Perimeter"TBATBAJuly 11, 2025 (2025-07-11)

Production

In 2021, book series author Martha Wells said that a potential TV series adaptation was in development,[5] and that she had read the script and was "really excited about it".[6] The series began moving forward at Apple TV+ in 2022, but casting was delayed by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[7]

The concept art for the show was created by Tommy Arnold,[8] who also designed the book covers for the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir.

It was announced in December 2023 that Alexander Skarsgård would produce and star in the series.[9] In February 2024, David Dastmalchian and Noma Dumezweni joined the cast.[10][11] In March, Sabrina Wu, Tattiawna Jones, Akshay Khanna, and Tamara Podemski joined the cast.[12]

Filming

Principal photography began on March 24, 2024, in Toronto, Canada.[13]

Release

The first two episodes of Murderbot premiered on Apple TV+ on May 16, 2025, with new episodes releasing each week until July 11,[14] when the season finale will be shown.[15] The first season will consist of ten episodes.[16]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Murderbot has an approval rating of 97% based on 59 critics' reviews. The website's critical consensus states, "Alexander Skarsgård's superbly dry wit brings a lot of heart to Murderbot, making for a refreshingly jaunty sci-fi saga about finally coming out of one's shell."[17] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 71 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[18]

References

  1. ^ Bell, BreAnna (December 14, 2023). "Murderbot Series from About A Boy Filmmakers Set at Apple, Alexander Skarsgård to Star and EP". Variety. Archived from the original on December 23, 2023. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  2. ^ "Murderbot". Apple TV+ Press. Retrieved May 16, 2025.
  3. ^ "Murderbot". Writers Guild of America West. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  4. ^ "Shows A-Z - murderbot on apple tv plus". The Futon Critic. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  5. ^ Spry, Jeff (June 22, 2021). "Exclusive Q&A: Sci-fi author Martha Wells talks about her latest Murderbot novella, Fugitive Telemetry". Space.com. Archived from the original on May 28, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
  6. ^ Pedersen, Erik (April 25, 2021). "How Murderbot Diaries author Martha Wells overcame a career in crisis to create the killer series". Orange County Register. Archived from the original on May 28, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
  7. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (December 14, 2023). "Alexander Skarsgård Stars in 'Murderbot' Sci-Fi Series Ordered By Apple From Chris & Paul Weitz". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 24, 2023. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  8. ^ "Tommy Arnold Concept Art". Tommy Arnold. Retrieved June 17, 2025.
  9. ^ Mishra, Shristy (December 14, 2023). "Alexander Skarsgård to Star in Long-Awaited 'Murderbot' Series". Collider. Archived from the original on December 25, 2023. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  10. ^ Grobar, Matt (February 28, 2024). "David Dastmalchian Joins Alexander Skarsgård In Apple Sci-Fi Series Murderbot". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 6, 2024. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  11. ^ Petski, Denise (March 1, 2024). "Noma Dumezweni Joins Alexander Skarsgård In Apple Sci-Fi Series Murderbot". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  12. ^ Cordero, Rosy (March 7, 2024). "Apple TV+'s 'Murderbot' Rounds Out Cast with Sabrina Wu, Tattiawna Jones, Akshay Khanna & Tamara Podemski". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 7, 2024. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
  13. ^ Jay, Johnny (March 24, 2024). "Sci Fi TV Highlights: Season Finale for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, The Acolyte Gets a Premiere Date, and More". Cancelled Sci-Fi. Archived from the original on March 25, 2024. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  14. ^ "Apple TV+ Debuts Trailer for Murderbot, Premiering May 16". Apple TV+ Press. Retrieved April 9, 2025.
  15. ^ Webster, Andrew (February 20, 2025). "Apple's Murderbot series starts streaming in May". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 22, 2025. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  16. ^ Webster, Andrew (December 14, 2023). "Apple is making a Murderbot series starring Alexander Skarsgård". The Verge. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  17. ^ "Murderbot: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 24, 2025.
  18. ^ "Murderbot: Season 1". Metacritic. Retrieved May 15, 2025.
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