This week, Apple TV+ premieres its new sci-fi series Murderbot, and if you've been itching for a new genre show to obsess over, it's time to get hyped. I've seen all 10 episodes of Murderbot and had a total blast watching them. This is a fun, funny show that is going to feel like a breath of fresh air after all the heavy fantasy and sci-fi shows that premiered during the early months of 2025.
Based on The Murderbot Diaries books by Martha Wells, Murderbot stars Alexander Skarsgård as a self-hacking security construct (called a SecUnit) who bypasses its own governor module, the bit of technology which forces it to obey humans. It's not quite sure what to do with this newfound freedom, so it does what any reasonable person would: binge watch TV shows to search for meaning and hope that the humans in its midst will leave it alone. Which they don't, of course.
The Murderbot books are fun and deeply insightful by turns, and Apple's new series captures that spirit well. It's created by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, brothers with a long and eclectic history in film, ranging from comedies like American Pie and About a Boy to fantasies like The Golden Compass and more. Chris Weitz is also one of the writers of Rogue One, the Star Wars film which is currently seeing a resurgence thanks to Tony Gilroy's spinoff series Andor. The Weitz brothers serve as showrunners on Murderbot, as well as writers, directors, and executive producers.
We caught up with Chris and Paul Weitz to discuss Murderbot, bringing Martha Wells' books to the screen, developing the in-world space soap opera The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon and more. Watch our interview below:
WINTER IS COMING: How did you first become aware of the Murderbot books and, and what made you want to adapt this for TV?
PAUL WEITZ: I like to choose books for their covers. [Laughs] And, so I was in bookstore and I saw these Murderbot books, and the covers looked awesome. And I read it, and I loved the character so much, and I loved the book so much. And I sent it to Chris and we both felt that it was something that we wanted to see if we could adapt or not.
And so really the big force here, frankly is Martha Wells, the author of the books, and it was a really great situation because the the first book of the series is a novella, and we didn't have to remove anything from it, like the first season maps onto the first book. We didn't have to remove anything from it, occasionally we had to add something, but because Martha made herself available to us, we could bounce ideas off her...see if they made sense to her. So that was all like, really reassuring.
WiC: One specific expansion that I'm really curious about, and I'm curious how the conversations with Martha Wells went for, is The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. What made you decide to make that a full-fledged guest starring production?
CHRIS WEITZ: Yeah, I felt like it would be a shame if you didn't see inside of Murderbot's head and watch this show along with it. So I mean, it's obviously a great target of opportunity, which is even more fun as a concept visually than it is in the book. So we just, I think, started riffing on what this show might be like, and kind of leaned into our most kind of campy and exploitative instincts in a way. And then Martha, fortunately, was kind of amused by what we were coming up with.
PAUL WEITZ: It had to be all those things and it had to be good, because Murderbot is obsessed with the show. So, you know...rewatching some of David Lynch's work now and realizing that sort of, if you pluck out a random moment from a David Lynch show, it might be a moment from a telenovela or from a soap opera or something, but there's also something kind of artistic going on with it. There's also an opportunity to delineate what the show was by saying, it's not this, you know...it's not sort of a tongue-in-cheek space opera.
WiC: Something I loved about the series the amount of meta commentary on television that you were able to do because of Sanctuary Moon, that's almost more suited to this medium than it would have been in the books. Were there any lines or tidbits, or anything like that with Murderbot's TV obsession that were especially cathartic for you as creators to sneak into the show?
CHRIS WEITZ: Well, I think it is cathartic to say, actually, I know this is all just made up stuff and it's all set in space, but there actually is value to escapism, and that science fiction as well is a way to look at emotion and personhood, that it's valid. And so in spite of the fact that Murderbot loves this show that everyone else considers incredibly junky, it still has value to it. And the arguments that it has with the team members, which aren't really in in the book, are kind of a fun part of the show.
PAUL WEITZ: Yeah, once you've made a certain number of movies, there's at least a couple that might be your favorites, but which people might have, you know, thought sucked at the time. So I really like that Murderbot is standing up for Sanctuary Moon even when people say it's schlock.
A huge thank you to Chris and Paul Weitz for taking the time to talk Murderbot with us!
Murderbot premieres its first two episodes on Apple TV+ this Friday. After that, new episodes air every Friday for the rest of its 10-episode first season.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.