Over the past few years, Apple TV+ has carved out a solid niche for itself as the go-to streaming service for adult science fiction, with series like Foundation, For All Mankind, Silo, and Severance. It's also become known for renewing those series and giving them a chance to find their footing, unlike many other streamers. And when those two things meet, it's a thing of beauty for genre television fans.
Right now, the latest sci-fi show running on Apple TV+ is Murderbot, based on the beloved Murderbot Diaries books by Martha Wells. The show has been a blast to watch and has resonated with critics and audiences alike, but as of this writing it has not yet been renewed. But to hear executive producer David S. Goyer tell it, the chances are looking pretty good for the future of Murderbot.
“We’ve hit our Byzantine-metric threshold and I think it has performed well enough that there will be another season. It’s not guaranteed, but I believe that to be the case,” Goyer told io9. “And the response, critically, I think, could not have gone better. And what we’re really interested in is, we knew we would get the sci-fi people in and the fans of the books, but we’re just interested in sort of branching out beyond people that typically don’t consider themselves fans of science fiction. Like my wife loves it, and she’s not a science fiction fan. And so that’s the audience that we’re going for and we’re hoping that that will continue.”
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. Murderbot has been a lot of fun so far, and given Apple's track record, it feels pretty reasonable to hope we'll see more. What Goyer said about this show resonating with viewers outside of the usual sci-fi fans is also interesting, and I could very much see it applying to Murderbot, with its deadpan sense of humor and fairly accessible story.
There are only three episodes left in Murderbot season 1, so hopefully we get a season 2 confirmation sooner rather than later!

Foundation has already laid a foundation for season 4
Goyer has his hands in quite a few sci-fi projects at Apple. He's also one of the main forces behind Foundation, the streamer's show based on the books by Isaac Asimov. The third season of Foundation is set to premiere on July 11, the same day that Murderbot airs its season finale.
Yet despite the fact that season 3 is on the horizon, Goyer revealed to io9 that there are already plans in place for a fourth season of the show. Apple hasn't renewed it yet, but this is arguably their flagship sci-fi series, so it's no surprise that everyone's thinking ahead.
“I don’t want to give away too much, but I will say that moving from season [three] to season four is the first time we do not jump forward centuries,” Goyer said. “So in a way, one might think of season three and season four as one sort of 20-episode season.”
For context, Foundation season 3 is set around 152 years after season 2. If the show is going to keep a closer chronology between seasons 3 and 4, it makes sense that it would feel like one big story instead of two discreet pieces. That'll be especially true if the new big bad, known as the Mule, sticks around past the third season. He's being played by Game of Thrones alum Pilou Asbæk, so you know he's going to be stealing the scene.
The Mule is a character Foundation has been setting up for quite a while who plays a major role in the book series. It's going to be a big deal for the show to finally pay that off. “I had always said, ‘The Mule is season three. We have to earn the Mule,’” Goyer said. “The reason why the Mule is so effective in the books is because it comes midway through the second novel, and you have to sort of set up the Foundation and set up the ways that its psychohistory seems to be kind of infallible and then the Mule is something that turns everything—the Mule doesn’t work unless you’ve seen the Foundation succeed a number of times.”
We'll see Asbæk shake things up as the Mule when Foundation season 3 premieres on July 11. Until then, we've got a few more episodes of Murderbot to tide us over. Don't leave us hanging too long on those renewal announcements, Apple!
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