Right now, Apple TV+ is in the middle of airing Murderbot, its new comedic science fiction series based on The Murderbot Diaries books by Martha Wells. I've been enjoying the show quite a lot, and it seems like a lot of other people are too. As of this writing, it holds a 97% rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes and an 80% among general viewers. The buzz has been good; just today it popped up on New York Times' list of favorite shows of 2025 so far.
But in the age of streaming, it's always hard to be sure just how well a show is doing. Streamers are notoriously cagey about releasing viewership data, so we really have no solid numbers from Apple about how many people are watching Murderbot. Now that we're nearing the end of its 10-episode first season, you may be wondering if we'll get another season; I know I am. Here's everything we know.
Will Murderbot get a second season?
As of this writing, Apple TV+ has not yet renewed Murderbot for season 2. But that's not necessarily cause for concern. Apple has a reputation for giving its shows a good chance of success and multiple seasons, but in the past they've often held off on announcing renewals until late in the season. For example, Apple didn't announce Silo was renewed for season 2 until mid-June 2023, around a week before its first season finale. Severance is a huge hit for the streamer, but they didn't let fans know for sure a season 3 was coming until after the season 2 finale had aired. The same pattern holds for shows like Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and the third season of Foundation, both of which got renewal announcements after their respective season finales aired.
All this is to say, there's still plenty of reason to think Apple will give Murderbot another season, even if it hasn't been officially confirmed yet. There's plenty of source material still; Martha Wells has written five novellas and two full-length novels in the series to date. If the show does continue, showrunners Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz already have plans for the future.
“We would love to adapt more of them,” Paul Weitz told io9 in an interview ahead of the show's premiere. “[We would] make sure that Martha liked what we were thinking, for sure. We love that there’s a real ending to the first season, but also the ending is the beginning of something Murderbot [as a character].”
“If people like the first season, there’ll be a desire to see Murderbot reunited in some fashion with the [other characters it meets],” Chris Weitz said. “I think that that would be something that we’d really want to look at in terms of figuring out what a second season would look like.”
Those statements give us hope we may see more of the show, as well as some hints about how the end of Murderbot season 1 may go down. If you can't wait until the season finale to find out, the first book All Systems Red is a relatively short read that's well worth the time.
We'll be on the lookout for any updates about Murderbot season 2. In the meantime, we've got four more episodes to go in season 1. There's plenty of danger and adventure ahead for Alexander Skarsgård's SecUnit and the Preservation Alliance team.
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